Shadows Smirk
by Foy the Snooze Button
Summary: Naruto was at a great disadvantage since the beginning of his life. Rejected by the one he thought he could trust, he set his sights for greater things. Working from the shadows with other lesser appreciated he makes a name for himself...controlling a place underappreciated and thrusting it forward. Fuinjutsu!Naruto, Smart!Naruto. A b.j twist on a common plot line.
1. Chapter 1

_**This time my Vault of Ink had mercy on me and produced not a person or a dark cloud shrouded creature for my eyes to consume and the rest of my mind to ravage but an idea…no two ideas. It gave me two ideas, two choices I must make to keep my sanity: a man with great power but with great disadvantage, or a man with great intuition but weak self-accomplishment. I chose…both.**_

 **Alright, alright i didn't think up this story all by myself; someone dropped a review in one of my stories once upon a time and my blessed curse just had to make something with it. yeah, and the dude that dropped that review, if by some coincidence your reading this…thanks, but…(*waves hand for you to forget*) I'd rather not…yell…this openly.**

 **Please understand guys; my 'talent', if you'd call it that, virtually controls part of my senses, it brings ideas into my mind and continuously clouds my mind till I write it down. It basically drives my mind, leaving me a passenger. I really try to control it but so far I can't; I just go with it till I need to go and ask my psychiatrist for more advice. I also accept advice from all o' y'all so…thanks if you care enough to drop something.**

 **Just some insight to this story. Naruto here is very smart, like really,** _ **really**_ **smart. He is really manipulative, starts small but it progresses with each chapter. Kyuubi is more tolerable, even helpful. A small note, if you all don't mind; I'll be putting 'Anything but being a Ninja' on a temporary hiatus but the rest of my stories that haven't been finished will be continued when I get out of school…in a few months…**

 **Oh! And I want to put 'The White Hornet' up for adoption; just don't feel it anymore, y'know, with all these stories packed up in my head I can't think up how to continue that story. Anyone that wants to take it should PM me first, ok? Awesome!**

 **I don't want to keep you all waiting with my mindless jabbering so, without further ado, I give to you…**

 **Shadows Smirk**

 **I DO NOT OWN NARUTO**

CHAPTER 1

There were a lot of things medical chakra could do, from healing minor scabs to mending entire skeletal systems, going even further to say that it could heal entire _limbs_ back to functionality. It was even widely rumoured that if a medic was to go deeper into his or her profession then he or she would be able to regenerate from fatal wounds. Most believed that was what the crystal on the legendary slug Sannin, Tsunade Senju, symbolized but thankfully there wasn't any reason for the woman to demonstrate what it was for.

True, medical ninjutsu was a great branch of ninjutsu which all ninjas had great respect for, there were some things that it couldn't do. Like raising the dead, or permanently curing hereditary brain tumours, or even healing fatal spine injuries.

Those unfortunate that medical ninjutsu couldn't aid in any way were deeply compensated in other ways if they were ninjas and heavily insured if they were civilians.

Naruto never enjoyed any of these medical privileges.

You see his problem happened at his birth, 12 years ago when the Kyuubi had been freed and not too long before it was to be re-sealed but this time into the Yondaime's only son, just as Kushina and Minato had used their own bodies to prevent the Kyuubi's violent claw from reaching their precious child, the lethal nail had come half way through and scratched Naruto's right thigh, leaking a small portion of its vile chakra into the infants growing chakra system.

Popular poll and basic knowledge for the more adept ninjas stated that, demon chakra, youkai, no matter how small, was terribly poisonous. It was a tainted, fractured version of the human chakra system that had come to be through less known means. The ninjas weren't too well informed on the origin of the tailed beast, namely the Juubi.

Now, Naruto was in a world of pain and he was too young to _understand_ what 'pain' was. It was after this time that Kyuubi had been sealed inside him with the semi irreversible seal matrix instead of the standard Uzumaki sealing method the red haired woman used to keep the chakra monster in her, as well as the jinchuriki before her, Uzumaki Mito. The tainted chakra had taken over the poor child's right leg and just as the Kyuubi could take its chakra back, it was too late.

Naruto's whole right leg was now useless.

It was something the Kyuubi would both regret and be thankful he had done when the blonde would ask him in the future. Regret because he was the reason Naruto would never be a shinobi again and be thankful because the boy found something to make him far better than any shinobi.

The bad leg, outwardly, looked as healthy as its other half, albeit slightly paler, but inwardly it was useless and partly lifeless. Naruto had been confined to a wheel chair since the day he could remember and he had been a sitting duck since the day he could talk; the villagers, not knowing whose son he was, capitalized on the fact he couldn't run by beating him. All the child could do was begging for mercy, but none was given.

On his 4th birthday he was kicked out of the orphanage, having to literally crawl to shelter and last a month before the old (and very naïve) Hokage would rescue him.

The only friend he had was the voice in his head proclaiming himself as the Kyuubi no Kitsune, the most powerful of all the tailed beasts. He had been introduced to the Kyuubi, involuntarily, when he was forced to eat mouldy bread and drink old milk. It was the Kyuubi that kept bolstering him on to not give up; if the Kyuubi hadn't been there then Naruto would have gladly submitted to the world.

They say every one globally _recognized_ has an origin story.

Naruto's origin story was that…

He opened a book.

Well…it wasn't exactly a book, more of a single page in a beat up paper back.

He had just celebrated his fifth birthday by himself; the Hokage had recently been too busy to visit him, the silver haired, dog mask wearing ANBU agent had stopped coming as well, and even the cat that had a curious red ribbon on her ear had stopped visiting. The only person that stayed; he didn't have any option, was the Kyuubi. As I was saying, after celebrating another lonely birthday, the child was about to go to bed until a thin book was thrown at him through the window by an obviously drunk villager who just happened to throw the first thing he saw, disregarding all the 'healthy' sized stones around in favour of an old, abused paperback book.

He tentatively picked it up, not having the energy to yell at the man, and opened it. It was like kami had sent him an apology for how messed up his life was.

The book contained only a picture and a page long paragraph. He was at least grateful the Sandaime had taught him how to read and write before he stopped coming; apparently the picture wasn't a picture at all, it was a seal. He took his time marvelling over how neat and intricate it looked, tracing his fingers over the drawing, his eyes then trailed to the writing. It was in a neat cursive and from what he read the picture (he didn't know it was a seal until then) was a basic fuinjutsu for storage.

His voice murmured slowly as his fingers traced where he was reading. After reading he blinked slowly and read over it again, something in his mind clicked, "Kyu? What do you think?"

The living natural disaster was also reading the writing, he looked at the Shinigami's seal, knowing that he would never be able to break out, and shrugged, _**"from what I remember, fuinjutsu is a very underappreciated branch of jutsu. The possibilities are endless. I'm certain that with enough dedication…"**_

"…I'll be able to walk," Naruto finished, he looked back at the seal and relaxed his hands when he saw they were gripping the delicate book harshly, "I-I don't know Kyu, this looks hard," he again trailed his fingers on the seal; Kyuubi allowed the boy to speak, "this fuin-something doesn't seem like much. But you did say it was 'underappreciated' and that the 'possibilities are endless'" the boy hummed cutely and scratched his chin, "you know what? I'll see what I can do, if it's too hard I'll stop," the Kyuubi rolled his eyes and settled in for the night while Naruto struggled up to the window sill directly next to his bed and waved his arms frantically, a mantis mask wearing ANBU operative dropped down from the roof and crouched on his desk, the unknown question asked, "please, ANBU-san, can you get me more stuff on this, _please_ ," the man snorted and was about to jump away but Naruto wasn't having any of that; he latched onto his leg with both arms and held on, " _please_ ," he tried doing what he saw most orphans do to collect more food: pout and widen his eyes. Naruto underestimated the power his kicked puppy look had on people.

The man sighed and silently flicked Naruto's arms away, he then back flipped out the window and came back a minute later with an arm sized scroll, "beginners level, kid, when you finish let me know," Naruto was only half hearing what the man had droned out; he had snatched the scroll and was pouring through it furiously. Mantis sighed and dropped the empty scroll, brush and ink on the bed, he briefly studied the boy and when he was sure Naruto wouldn't notice he dropped another empty scroll, as a spare, and left.

Naruto wasn't aware, not in the least; he was salivating over the beginners scroll for fuinjutsu users. His childish mind a whirlwind of ideas and possibilities from what the unknown author of the scroll wrote seal masters could do with seals. It said fuinjutsu could seal away entire buildings and even create a solid protective barrier when needed. He filled in the blanks of what the person didn't want to write like it could seal away bijou and if possible alter reality slightly, not too much but to the users favour.

If fuinjutsu could do this then there was still hope for him to be a ninja. If he could invent a seal fast enough before the academy started then he could be a ninja. Realistically speaking, it was impossible; one of the signature jutsu the Yondaime used, as outlined by the scroll, took him years to make and even longer to fully master, so he unconsciously prepared himself for disappointment. There was one thing he wasn't aware of; it was to never count out an Uzumaki, especially when it concerns fuinjutsu.

Sleep left him that night…and the subsequent nights…and the subsequent months of studying the enthralling scroll. The boy was so awfully dedicated to mastering the beginners scroll that he had set aside an hour, from 3 am to 4 am, to get some shut eye. It was just for necessity; he was abiding by what the scroll had set down.

It was after three months that he had finally made a successful storage scroll.

Naruto couldn't recall the happiest he had ever been after seeing the stick being sealed into the scroll and unsealed. He didn't need to even ask the mantis mask wearing ANBU to give him another scroll; he found another level scroll, bigger and heavier than the last one, on his bed. Little did he know it was the Sandaime that was giving him the fuinjutsu scrolls through his ANBU ninja. The scrolls were coming straight from the joint Namikaze-Uzumaki sealing scrolls the Yondaime and his wife had set aside for their child if they were ever met their demise. It was the Third's way of keeping the child's mind off his seemingly permanent predicament, and if there was ever a need, for Naruto to have a way to defend himself.

It was when the budding seal master was 11 years old did the Sandaime get the shock of his life.

The boy had been making progress in his seal work so fast that on his 11 birthday he was a level eight seal master. Besides the regular studies on the regular supply of training scrolls, Naruto had been ensuring that he kept his primary goal in mind. He spent half a day of scouring his scroll and then spent the rest of the day cracking seals to their base strokes and separating them so he knew the combinations to make. He tested them on the dead rats in his hovel like apartment, hoping and praying for their legs to even twitch minutely. His breakthrough finally came when the dead rat scampered erratically around his apartment, as if it was being electrocuted. The creature was still as dead as a door stop; it was only his lower half that was moving but it was the result he had been searching for.

As the rat was running around limply his fingers tapped the table periodically when it slowed down, it froze for half a second and continued moving about madly.

He called it a Forced Movement seal. Its inspiration, surprisingly, was gotten from a barrier seal. The barrier seal was powered by the users own chakra, if the person ever stopped the flow then the barrier would momentarily lose its integrity and crumble but if the flow was continuous until the barrier was no longer needed then it could with stand the full brunt of numerous lightning jutsu. The force movement seal functioned almost the same way; one part of the seal would be placed on his useless leg and the other would be in the palm of his hand. Though it was still unfinished, the seal in the leg was to send some chakra to the main tenketsu in his legs and the muscles to stimulate movement, the one in his hand was inspired by the walkie talkies he saw the villagers children played with, the seal in his palm is where he would channel the chakra and it would immediately go to the leg seal.

The only thing that remained was to add in a chakra store in case he ever forgot to channel chakra and to make sure it wouldn't inflict too much strain on himself. He shakily controlled the epileptic rat to him and scanned over the dead body for any wounds or strained muscles.

 _Success_.

No problems whatsoever. He covered his mouth hastily and giggled, _'no better time like the present,'_

' _ **Don't overdo it, kit,'**_

' _No worries Kyu, I've got this,'_ he over loaded the seal on the paper, a severe down side of the wonder seal, and both leg and palm seals dissolved into small drops of ink. He placed his left hand on the ground and began the long process of drawing the seals, after drawing the seals flawlessly on his palm and his right leg, _'here goes nothing…'_ he channelled a trickle of chakra to 'warm' the seal up and steadily increased the flow, his eyes widened when he felt his dead leg twitch again and again, he scrambled to his hands and knees and pushed himself up.

He fell down.

He grunted in frustration and pushed off the ground again, stumbling around and smashing back first into the wall. He tried to get his legs back under control but the limbs rebelled and began kicked around. It greatly surprised him that it was _both_ of his legs that went against him, the left leg kicked a hole through his wall and his right axe kicked the only table he had. He reduced the chakra flow into the seal and when he felt his legs crumble under him he jump started it again, the rebellion reduced to only a barely perceived muscle twitch this time.

The moment he began walking he felt like a new born baby, bumbling and crashing into furniture but since he didn't exactly have anywhere to go for a while he used the week to get used to walking. Then he went to the Hokage's office…

"Naruto?"

"In the flesh!" the last time Hiruzen Sarutobi had seen Naruto he was a short five year old boy with dazzling blonde hair and healthily bronze skin. Now…now he looked very unhealthy, with the way his dull blonde hair flopped weakly on his head, he noticed the jaggedness on the edges and assumed Naruto had been cutting his own hair and how his skin now looked too pale and veiny. His skin was pallid and malnourished; his clothes looked like they hadn't been washed in… a _really_ long time. From the large holes on the boys torso and legs he saw the purple bruises and the obvious stab wounds turned scars, the horrifying stab wounds were so large that you would have to be blind to not notice them and how awfully numerous they were. He knew if he was to check Naruto's whole body he would find more.

In summary, he looked the direct contrast of how one in his lineage was meant to be treated. The Hokage held his face and restrained the tears that wanted to fall down, _'how could it have gotten this bad?'_ though he was the one to send the training scrolls to Naruto through one of his ninjas he hadn't personally checked up on him, even through his scrying ball. He has failed in protecting Naruto and he knew it. He lifted his head, and though Naruto hid it well he saw the major distrust in his eyes and the way his fingers kept tapping his supposed to be dead thigh.

"Hello? Are you still there Sandaime-sama?" there was another reason he had failed; Naruto used to call him grandfather, honourable grandfather, but it grandfather all the same. He put his best game face on and allowed his mouth to fall open when he finally noticed Naruto was standing, the pale blonde took his surprise in stride, "pretty neat huh?"

"H-h-how…"

"There was this really nice ninja that gave me this scroll on fuinjutsu; it was _so_ interesting I just had to learn it,"

' _The level of mastery he has to have to create a seal to do this is amazing!'_ he cleared his throat, "well done Naruto-kun," he watched, confused, as Naruto's shoulders sagged in disappointment, "is there a problem,"

"Ji-I mean-Sandaime-sama…I came to sign up for the academy, I may be a bit too old but-but with hard work and dedication I can-"

"I'm sorry Naruto-kun but you can't be admitted," the old man cut him off before Naruto could fall into a nervous rant,

"Why not!"

The Hokage waved for a cat mask wearing ninja to stand down after the boy's outburst, "technically…you still can't walk,"

"But I can! Look at me!" he stomped around the room and stumbled after two steps, he cursed foully and stood up so he could walk around again, "I can walk fine!"

"I can see the strain it has on you-"

"It's only a little, I'll get used to it!"

"The answer is still no. You're very unhealthy and your very weak," he visibly saw the respect the boy had for him, the little left, fall out of Naruto's eyes as a small stream of tears,

"And whose fault is that?"

Sarutobi sighed, "Naruto-"

"answer me, who's to blame," he used a dirty sleeve to blow out his nose, "I spend the greater part of 7 years to find out how I can walk…so I can finally be a ninja…and you-you won't even give me a chance to prove myself,"

"I was just being honest. I can't have any of my ninjas weak, what if that seal got washed off by a water jutsu user?" Naruto kept quiet, "exactly,"

"I-I can make it more durable, I just need a bit more time,"

"The answer is still no. I can register you for civilian school?"

"No! I want to be a ninja!"

"Naruto…I'll say this once and only once but you can't _ever_ be a ninja,"

 _You can't_ _ **ever**_ _be a ninja_

 _ **Ever**_

His last words echoed around the room, into the listening ears of the hidden ANBU and the blonde boy. He took the proclamation very well. The tears stopped flowing and his anguished face smoothed over, he didn't even bow before he left the office. Seeing the boy go and acknowledging he had just broken a child's dream the Hokage went back to work, his heart berating him for his harsh words but his mind drowning the voice out by saying it was to disillusion the boy.

" _ **I told you he wouldn't agree,"**_

' _Yeah well, good for you,'_

" _ **That wasn't what I meant, kit,"**_ he hadn't seen the boy this defeated in a long time, his eyes were glassy and his weak blonde hair seemed even weaker and duller than normal. Naruto was looking at the ceiling with his face a perfect mask of expressionlessness. His shirt was off and his hands were tracing the latest scar he had, near his belly button, he deeply wondered why he hadn't set up barrier seals and alarm seals around his apartment. Maybe it was because of the childish hope that the people in the village would finally see he wasn't bad.

He chuckled dryly at the thought, _'they'd never accept me,'_

" _ **Kit?"**_

' _You were right, heck you're always right; they would never accept me,'_ Naruto rubbed his face and sat up. His eyes moved to the scraps of paper scattered all over his apartment, on the pieces of paper were unfinished and imperfect seals, the seals that were good enough were neatly stacked beside his broken table. He pumped some chakra into the seal and stumbled to the neat pile of paper, _'what should I do, Kyu?'_

" _ **I don't know why you keep asking me for instruction kit, I'm not exactly the best at giving advice,"**_ this wasn't true; it was the Kyuubi that had pushed him into studying fuinjutsu and it was also the great beast that picked him up whenever he fell down, Kyuubi was always there.

 _Always_

The boy knelt down beside the pile and blankly looked over the pieces of paper, _'I don't know what to do with myself anymore, the only reason I invented this seal was to be a ninja and you saw how that turned out,'_

" _ **Then prove them wrong, make something out of nothing,"**_

' _What do you mean?'_

" _ **To be honest kit, I can't stand this place. Konoha. You can't feel it yet but so do you,"**_ Naruto didn't even raise any complaint, _**"you have potential, I can see it, but this place is limiting you,"**_

' _What should I do?'_ he already knew what the beast was about to suggest, he just wanted him to say it out loud,

" _ **I propose we make our own paradise,"**_ Naruto laughed breathily,

' _That's crazy talk,'_

" _ **I'm being serious here. If this place won't see you for you then either go somewhere else or make your own place. I don't want to see wasted potential,"**_

' _Assuming I agree with you…how do you suppose I leave, I barely know how to walk,'_ the great beast chuckled darkly after hearing what the boy had said,

" _ **Baby steps. Remember what I said all those years ago: In fuinjutsu, the possibilities are endless,"**_ the jinchuriki blinked slowly and comprehension finally dawned on him, as well as ideas for more seals. He couldn't stop himself; he picked up a random sheet of paper and began scrawling over it, crafting and drawing a seal that would soon propel him into the global recognition in the near future. He made a wrong stroke and discarded the paper and began anew on another empty scroll.

When he had finally finished he crawled to a pile of dirty clothes and slipped the scroll under it, he shuffled a bit away and drew a clean 'X' on the seal n his belly.

Naruto steadied his breathing and channelled chakra into the 'X' seal…

 **Authors note**

 **What'cha think? Good? Bad? Meh?**

 **I'll update this when I can; I'm still in school.**

 **Review!**

 **B.j.**


	2. Chapter 2

**Thanks for all your reviews guys; I really appreciate it. School is getting harder and this is the only way, so far, for me to unwind, y'know?**

 **No pairing for now…maybe ever…but the story is still developing so let's see…**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 2

The seal Naruto had drawn was a fractured variation of his forced movement seal. He removed the limiter on the original seal so it could make the whole body move under a constant flow of chakra. The other difference was that it wasn't _his_ body he wanted to use, the 'X' on the Kyuubi containment seal was a contact point to channel chakra.

His aim was to extract the Kyuubi's essence, and hopefully some of its chakra, and have it outside. He called it the 'Forced Animation seal'. (Note: not _**re**_ -animation)

It worked…kind of…

He channelled _his_ chakra instead of _Kyuubi's_ to the seal on his belly and a small orange-red spark of chakra erupted. It lasted for only half a second, the seal sparked again but this time the orange-red spark crawled down his belly and leaped straight into the bundle of clothes. Meanwhile, Naruto's endurance turned out to be a blessing; he grits his teeth powerfully and clawed the ground, leaving jagged tracks from his nails. The spark disappeared and Naruto felt _lighter_. He breathed a sigh of release and lifted his head to the bundle.

The dirty clothes on the ground bubbled and even spat out small flecks of dirt upwards. The centre spun in a sort of whirlpool and rose up into the air till it was exactly Naruto's height if he was standing. The clothes whirlpool stopped turning and the clothes tightened around its middle, Naruto could make out a left chest, then a belly button, then a malnourished arm slopped out of where arms were supposed to be. This process continued until the head popped out from between the shoulders, it was wrapped up like a sandy brown turban, leaving only its red sclera eyes to shine through the bindings.

The boy hesitantly reached out to his creation, stiffening when the animated bundle of clothes bent down till it was eye level to him and blinked.

The creation coughed, clearing his throat with a lot of effort, "Na-Na-Naruto-sama," its voice was gravelly and dangerous, it flexed his fingers in front of its face curiously and when it noticed his creator was trying to get up he hastily helped him up, displaying a surprising show of strength with arms so stick-like, and gently dropped the boy on his wheel chair.

The young seal master kept on silently watching as the cloth creation shuffled around the room and curiously touching whatever caught its attention, _'Kyuubi…what have I done?'_

" _ **I can't sense your dark half, well most of it. You must have sucked it out instead of me;"**_ the chakra beast scratched its head and continued, _**"what I don't understand is why it called you master. Darker halves don't refer to anyone as their master,"**_ Kyuubi then immersed in the theories spinning in its head, _**"but darker halves aspire to reach the light and take over it. I think it calls you master because, technically, you**_ **have** _ **taken it to the light, but it doesn't seem to want to take over it. I can't sense any ill will to you. Quite frankly, it's a version of you but without any inhibition,"**_ Naruto's darker half punched a hole through a picture of the Sandaime Naruto had forgotten he had, _**"it also seems to know what you're thinking,"**_

The blonde processed this information while still supplying chakra to his darker self. This wasn't what he wanted, not in the least; he didn't even know he had a darker half, but he wasn't one to waste an opportunity; he whistled for the other Naruto's attention, "What should I name you?"

The cloth creation scampered to him and fell on its knees before him, grovelling at his feet, "Naruto-sama should name me,"

"Fine then. I'll call you Daku, The Dark One,"

"Excellent name, Naruto-sama," Daku wrung his hands nervously, "what should Daku do for Naruto-sama?"

"I want to know what you _can_ do." He waved his arm and Daku ran to his bed and recovered his blanket from the top, dropping it on Naruto's lap neatly, and the supposedly crippled boy proceeded to drape the thin cloth on his legs "let's find an empty training ground,"

Daku was a special…thing.

There was literally no limit to its strength and it found it exceedingly hard to control; it tried petting a rabbit and ended up caving its head in, he tried stroking the bark of a tree and carved out a deep portion out of it. He already had plans in his head to control Daku's strength and transferring it to other aspects of its body.

The dark one didn't have any chakra network, he had a belly filled with chakra and he had thick cylinders that spread out from his belly to his arms, legs and head but his chakra network seemed so…underdeveloped. It was so underdeveloped and wasteful he actually pitied the cloth creation. The amount of chakra needed to run around the secluded training ground more than once was enough to make six giant fireballs consecutively while water walking on a rapid stream. Naruto would agree that he had a large store of chakra, larger than even the Hokage's, but the creation burned off so much of it actually took a toll on him. (Just imagine what it would take to make an _Uzumaki jinchuriki_ tired. Yes, _that_ much chakra). If he was anyone else the chakra drain would have killed him in the first half hour but his chakra network was still growing, trying to accumulate the purified Kyuubi chakra siphoning into him.

Daku was very fast and accompanied with his strength and he was sure it could face off against any elite jounin and hold its own, the problem lay with the fact that it didn't have any tangible fighting style. He grew more and more ashamed watching it punch and kick randomly. He was at least happy when Daku told him he could read.

It was very flexible and dextrous with the way he could contort itself in painful ways without wincing. Daku could create sharp starched strong cloth stakes out of its hands and any part of its boy, the stakes were strong enough but he deduced a well-timed blow could shatter them.

Daku had an amazing memory. It could remember whatever you told him to the very last detail. It could also perform the tasks to the best of its ability, the only problem being its still uncontrollable strength.

After a thorough assessment his first order was for the chakra creation was to spy on a chunin training and memorize anything he or she did, whether the person was practicing taijutsu, genjutsu, shurikenjutsu or stealth…anything was fine and since it didn't need any food for nourishment, only the supply of chakra, then it could stay and observe each and every one that trained for days and days. A week of observation later and Daku came back, he wrote all he learned down on several scrolls, adding drawings when necessary. The hand writing was perfect and legible so he could read it. He commanded the dark one to learn it all and go back and learn more. He grew not to be surprised by the level of detail Daku took to using to write and draw all he observed. The observation took Daku three months before he was fairly proficient in anything.

 **(AN: from here I'll start calling Daku 'he' not 'it')**

When he was sure Daku was stealthy enough he commanded him to start reading scrolls from the library on all the ninja aspects. The dark one read so fast it took him two minutes to finish up a ninjutsu scroll filled with D rank jutsu. He was then commanded to learn other things like carpentry, masonry, mining, politics, there was only so much you could learn from a book so he personally took him deep into the forest (by personally he meant Daku rolled his wheelchair around) to cut down trees and craft the simplest of things.

Naruto had Daku carve out a perfect adult skeletal frame out of wood, with smooth pebbles as the joints and thin wires to keep the jaw hinged to the skull. He took the scroll that had pulled the dark one out and improved it, adding a sort of battery to store up excess chakra and feed it into him, with the way Daku consumed so much chakra the battery would be commonly used. The battery was like Daku's brain, almost limitless; there was a limit, it was just that it would take a lot of chakra to reach it. He put the scroll safely in the chest cavity and watched in satisfaction as Daku returned. The dark one pulled rocks and loose pieces of clothes to the skeleton till the wooden bones were covered by tan covered materials, the head was still covered in an eerie turban, this time it was a camo brown, and within the turban held spine tingling red eyes.

The clothes he wore were standard ANBU fatigues. The long sleeved shirt and pants were pitch black, the flak jacket was camo brown and the sandals were brown. Gloves prevented the stakes from sliding out and he didn't need a mask to cover his identity.

The stakes were not starched clothes anymore; they were either made of wood or stones. He mentally reminded himself to instruct Daku to steal some marbles and if possible…diamonds.

 _Baby steps…_

The rocks under the cloth skin increased his strength tenfold but drastically reduced his speed and stealth, so they took another month out to get it back. They also had to look into chakra control exercises to reduce how much chakra it took to using any jutsu. The dark one could compress his chakra so small that it could be equal to the size of a baseball, which was as far as hiding his presence could get. It was enough for average shinobi but he was sure a sensor would detect him. He had drawn separate limiter seals on each of the dark one's body parts so the chakra usage would drastically reduce and the muscle power would develop even more.

Naruto, as he was training Daku, didn't abandon his specialty. Daku had memorized some scroll he had found in the library about sealing and progressed all the more into it (if that's even possible). He was now brushing into level nine level of mastery in fuinjutsu but he just couldn't get past it to level ten. He practiced walking but now preferred using his wheelchair, which he couldn't resist but to augment. He had written custom made seals on it and removed the wheels. The purpose of the seals was so that it could…hover…over the ground with accumulated wind chakra directly from his chakra network. It wasn't too fast but he wasn't too focused on speed, more on efficiency.

When the genin from the academy graduated Daku was also ready to face the world. Naruto had Daku create shadow clones to scout outside konoha's walls. The news was always the same…nothing of importance. His plan was to either take over an existing village then the country or he would create his own village then take over the country. Naruto grew more adventurous and sent Daku out further to the nearest village to learn if it had the qualities he was looking for.

It did.

The Land of Wave wasn't a village, it was an _**island country**_. But it might as well be a large hovel situated on a semi waste land. The people were _literally_ dirt poor, crime was at an all-time high, they were being oppressed by an external force and their daimyo was too weak to do anything about it. When he got Daku's report he actually smiled; it had been a few months since he had, and instructed the loyal creation to go and liberate the country, transferring half of its control to Daku, who had specific instruction to make it know he wasn't the true leader, until Naruto could come out and claim the position. If Daku performed his mission to the letter, which was all the time, then he would soon have the loyalty of a country under his grasp.

' _Naruto-sama wants me to go to Wave country and set it free, keep the country for Naruto-sama until Naruto-sama is ready to come out publically. Daku would go, I will go and do as Naruto-sama instructs because Daku is for Naruto-sama and Naruto-sama alone,'_ this was the lone though as the wood and cloth creation speed over out of konoha's borders and into the wave country border. The only thing about him visible was a deep shadow that bounced off trees and rocks till it reached the water border of wave country.

He hummed to himself and took a tentative step onto the surface of the water, nodding when he didn't sink and continued with blurring speed to the nearest village which so happened to be the place the wave daimyo and the tyrant that took over wave resided.

From all the books on politics he had been reading he deduced that he would need to end the threat before meeting with the daimyo. Still, before he could do either he had to get the people of wave ready for the gross amount of change that was about to happen. The village and the country had potential to be one of the richest and well protected places if the government handled it right; the water was a good way to trade with other places and the water also provided some security against invasion.

When he got to the other side he stopped so he could think up a plan to prepare the poor people, unlike the first time he was here he wasn't trying to be stealthy or quiet so he was half unprepared when one of the seven swordsmen of the mist attacked him. He heard the whirring of a large blade and that was all the warning he got. He ducked and slipped into the tree line, waiting for his attacker to show his or herself. His patience paid off when Zabuzza seemingly appeared on the sword and blinked in confusion when he didn't see the mysterious person or his head less corpse.

The swords man hopped off his lodged weapon and cleanly pulled it out; "come out, come out wherever you are!" Daku assumed he was one of the tyrant's hired hands so he would have to go through him before he could get to Gato. Not one for theatrics he blurred out of the underbrush and shoulder tackled straight into Zabuzza before he could realize his presence, or so he thought, until the 'Zabuzza' on the ground turned into a puddle of water. He performed a flawless one seal 'body replacement' in time for the legendary head cleaver to impact where he formerly was, "I have to say, stranger, you sure are fast. Let's get this over with; who do you work for and why are you here?"

His answer were water bullets shooting out of the darkness in the forest and smashing into the flat side of his sword, his feet shuffled backwards from the effort of holding himself against the onslaught. Daku, with his left forearm to his fingers now a stone stake, kicked the Zabuzza, grunting in displeasure when he again turned into water. His hearing warned him that an attack was coming from behind; he capitalized on the knowledge and raised his stake hand to intercept the blow but was forced to slide back when the sword cleaved clean through his weapon.

Zabuzza swiped again and Daku bent down low, rolled to the swordsman and shot up under him with a precise and deadly upper cut. The movement was so fast that the swordsman only had time to substitute himself _after_ the attack. Daku split the substituted log in half with a newly formed stake. He hummed in displeasure and caught the small spurt of smoke in the bushes before he went through a short chain of hand seals, making sure to pump as little chakra as his control would allow, 'Wind release: Great breakthrough'. The wind he blew out surged over the forest, forcing the A rank nuke nin to dig his sword into the ground to hold on.

Daku made a water clone and the clone sank into the ground and shot out underneath the unsuspecting missing ninja. The real Daku stopped and barrelled into the forest, shoulder tackling Zabuzza and began laying waste to his face until…

He felt four sharp needles in his back…or where his tenketsu were meant to be but since his chakra network was still too underdeveloped it only jammed into his arms and lower back. The ice needles lodged into his rocky muscles and slowed him down for the ninja under him to kick him away. Daku hummed sourly and flexed his lean muscles, the needles shooting out not too long after and blocked the coming onslaught of ice needles with both arms-turned stakes. He made numerous water clones to fish the secret attacker out, the ice attack stopped just as the last clone disappeared into the darkness. He turned his red fox sclera eyes to the injured swordsman and kicked the man's abdomen as he ducked a horizontal sword slice.

The man was pushed back and Daku followed with more dizzyingly fast kicks and punches till Zabuzza literally had his back to the tree. He summoned a stake and pinned the man's shoulders to the tree, breaking the man's legs with two swift kicks. He stepped back to marvel at what he had done, his clones surged out of the forest with a knocked out hunter ninja on one of their shoulders. The one that brought the attacking ninja came to him and gingerly dropped him to the ground, "mist hunter ninja, looks and sounds too young to _be_ a hunter ninja. I assume he works for Zabuzza," the both turned to the foully cursing swordsman, the clone picked up the fallen sword and handed it to his 'boss', "what should we do?"

Daku dispelled the rest of the clones, leaving the one he was talking to, "we need to find out Gato's location, tell us or else,"

The wild man spat at him and growled, "You don't have the guts,"

"On the contrary," he flipped the hunter ninja onto his stomach and stepped on the downed boys left shoulder, grasping the left arm, "I don't exactly have a heart to care," he pulled and when he heard a resounding _pop_ , he released the boy. The boy's eyes shot open and he let loose a pained yell, desperately trying to crawl away from the person that had put him in so much pain but the clone stepped on his back, stopping his movement, "where is Gato hiding?"

"Leave the kid alone, only I know where Gato is,"

"also on the contrary; I know you do but it's now clear you care about this child," he hadn't even bothered to remove the boys hunter ninja mask, he grasped the other arm and the boys struggling started anew, he made to pull but the swordsman yelled for him to stop.

Zabuzza let his head sag, "fine…I'll tell you where he's staying…just-just leave him out of this…please…"

"Wise decision," he let go of the boys arm and dispelled his clone, kicking the boys hand when he wanted to throw some ice senbon, "I thought we've established those are useless against me,"

"Haku…stand down," the boy did so wearily, "he's staying far east from here, his place is huge and surrounded by armed guards and attack dogs, you can't miss it," he groaned in pain when the rock stakes crumbled and he fell down limply,

"For your compliance I won't kill you, your death would serve no purpose to my master. Know that I only left you alive because you may serve a purpose for my master, both of you,"

"Who-who are you?" the masked boy whispered,

"I am Daku, the Great Master's loyal Right hand," he turned away, "my master would reveal himself when he is ready, just be ready to submit to him when he calls you," and with those bone chilling words he blurred out in the general direction of the nearest village. He summoned clones and they Henge'd into various generic looking people with one goal in mind: to spread the word that change was coming.

Whispers all over the town began after he had dispelled his clones.

" _Did you hear what that guy said? He said wave is going to be saved!"_

" _He says a great change is coming!"_

" _I don't believe him! Gato is too powerful!"_

" _The way he described this man…I'm not sure what to think"_

" _If a stranger says change is coming…I don't know about you but I'll believe anything right now"_

" _What did he say we shouldn't inform the daimyo?"_

" _I don't know and…I-I just don't know"_

With his job in the village done Daku untiringly ran to Gato's hide out, if he had a heart or even the smallest of consciences then what he saw would have sent him in a blind rage. There were females… _young_ females…being passed around and from what he heard the apparent leader of the hired hands then the girls were part of the payment Gato would give them. He tried to summon any emotion he had observed from his master and settled his turban covered face in a displeased scowl, humming disapprovingly when a man roughly grouped a girl two times younger than him.

The only thing that had motivated him to aid those poor girls before he headed into the strong hold was that it was what 'Naruto-sama' would do _and_ it would greatly benefit his masters plans in the long run. He memorized all their faces in a section of his mind for items of least importance; he wouldn't need their faces if they were dead, and he assigned a clone to each one, sending them away to kill the hired hands outside. The mercenaries didn't even have the time to blink before a solid stone stakes were driven through the back of their heads, the clones smoothly covered the young girl's mouths to prevent them from screaming and with a harsh glare they non-verbally nodded to show their co-operation.

The clones knocked the girls out and carried their limp bodies to their 'boss', Daku dispelled all the clones except one and assigned the lone clone to guard the girls, casting a genjutsu over them to make sure they stayed asleep.

The real Daku stealthily crept into the unguarded fortress, slinking from shadow to shadow like a phantom. From a guess he would say the guards remaining were a bit over two dozens'.

Now there were two ways to go about exterminating the threat.

He could plant bombs throughout the base, kidnap Gato and blow the place up before the hired hands knew what was happening. Picking off the survivors with his stakes.

Or he could go in silently and assassinate who and whatever, taking Gato's head as proof of his death.

He ran both scenarios' in his head and chose the latter; the chakra consumption for using his stakes would wear him down, as well as the fact that it wouldn't be a clean job. So, like a grotesque spider, he skittered on the wall, going room to room, and eradicated all who he perceived as a threat. He found some unwilling prostitutes with some of the men and quietly pointed for them to run to the entrance. He cleanly and mercilessly killed till he dropped behind Gato and jammed his bloody stake arm through his pudgy back, pulling it out, with his pig like heart, and watched in satisfaction as the man died drowning in his own blood.

Next step was the daimyo.

The poor daimyo didn't even have enough security to pose as much threat as the dead thug, so he dispatched of the old man effectively. He had to kill the man because he was the one that introduced the tyrant to his country, in hopes of looting from his own people but that plan back fired when Gato had threatened to use the information against him by telling it to other daimyos, soiling his name.

 _Well_ …

He found all that out _after_ he had killed the daimyo. Daku looked down on both men, then up at the gathering villagers. He stood in the centre of the village silently, an imposing figure hovering over the obviously dead bodies of the tyrant and their weak daimyo. His red eyes glowed so ominously that no one had the courage to speak for a while; Daku raised his right hand, forming a clean stake, and shot it into the two dead men's chest to confirm to all of them that they were dead. All that bore witness cringed in phantom pain.

"You-you're the change, r-right!?" a dirty orphan said from the safety of the far back,

"I am part of the change," he kicked both dead men into the crowd, "another other part of the change concerns this village and, by clear extension, this country's total submission,"

"To who!?" another person yelled, a sailor,

"To my master, he has seen how this country would be in the future under proper governance. He wishes to become the leader of this country,"

"Anyone is better than those two!"

"Perfect," he unsealed a scroll and said out loud, "this is what my master wishes you all to do before he can make himself known…"

Back in Konoha, just as Daku left for his indefinitely long mission, Naruto sat in an open forest, sketch pad in hand and pencil smoothly running over the page, drawing in perfect detail the general flight pattern of a swallow. He sat in his special wheelchair, his faithful Daku clones guarding him from the shadows.

The bird he was drawing, purely out of leisure, ruffled its feathers and began singing. The boy's unhealthy pale skin now looked better with all the food Daku had been stealing for him, though his hair could not go back to how vibrant it looked again. He wasn't particularly picky over how he looked so he didn't bother dying it. He wore a simple white shirt with deep blue stripes on the shoulders and sides, with baggy black pants that perfectly hid his legs, he had on blue sandals that he was sure hadn't touched the ground yet. His legs were bounded securely by a seat belt in case he ever had to defend himself unexpectedly.

He grunted sourly and neatly rubbed out a useless line from the bird's wing, and then he continued with his facial features plain and peaceful. The drawing depicted the phases a bird goes through before it could take off the ground or off a branch. Though not noticed at first, it was fairly easy to understand. He hummed a tune and continued sketching, he felt a faint tingle on the right arm of his hovering-but now currently on the ground-wheelchair, signifying that someone he wasn't familiar with had breached his alarm seals. The Daku clones weren't intercepting the person so he or she wasn't too much of a threat.

His suspicions were confirmed when, from the corner of his eyes, he noticed a pair of pale pupil less eyes watching him. He didn't break composure whatsoever; he wanted the person to make him or herself known. Naruto turned to where a Daku clone was hiding an hour of watching later and flicked his eyes at the hiding person, two minutes later the clone dropped down in front of him, Hinata on his shoulder, and disappeared before she could see who had gotten her.

The 12 year old girl scrambled to her feet shakily, red faced and embarrassed, "a-a-ano…"

Not even bothering to look at her, the young fuinjutsu user went back to his sketching, from the regular reports he had gotten from Daku, which were stored in blood seals under his bed, the girl in front of him was Hyuuga Hinata, heiress to the Hyuuga clan, has confidence problem and daddy problems. "Why are you here, Hyuuga-san?"

He didn't see it but the girl blushed, stumble over her words pitifully before she could say anything coherent, "a-ano…i-I haven't s-seen yo-you before…"

"I'm clearly not a threat,"

"I-I'm so-"

"I don't need sympathy," he cut her off calmly, briefly looking at the swallow then back to what he was drawing,

Hinata gulped and twiddled her fingers, she tried to change the topic, "ni-nice wea-weather we have…uhm…"

"I agree; the weather is nice, perfect for relaxing," she looked down on what he was drawing and marvelled on how majestic he made a common bird look, making her appreciate it all the more, "what is your name, if you don't mind me asking?"

"A-ano…my-my name is Hinata Hy-Hyuuga," he hadn't even looked up,

"Naruto Uzumaki,"

She went in for the figurative kill again, "you-you have a nice n-name, Naruto-san,"

"Thank you. Now be honest with me, Hinata-san, why are you still here?"

She tilted her head slightly, "I-I don't understand,"

This time he looked up and she had to hold herself from stepping into his personal space, "I obviously make you uncomfortable and your meant to be training with your team by now,"

"How-how did y-you know?"

"I've been coming to this spot since I was 9 to draw whenever I have time and a few months ago your team made the training ground your own,"

"I…see,"

"Hinata! Where are you Hinata!?"

They both turned to the forest where they heard her name being called, "you are needed, it seems," she nodded and made to run into of the thicker parts of the forest but stopped just at the edge,

"Would-would I see you again?"

Naruto shrugged and went back to his bird sketching, "maybe when I'm less busy," she nodded and went back to her team, "curious girl, what do you think Daku?"

"From my 'bosses' observations she does not like harming others, she has too soft a heart to be an effective shinobi,"

"I _know_ that, I meant do you think she should be a core part of my plans?"

"It would be an enjoyable addition, Naruto-sama,"

The boy scratched his chin as he thought more into it, "yes…yes, she will be enjoyable addition," a minute smirk graced his plain face as he looked at where the girl had disappeared to.

 **Authors note**

 **What'cha think dudes? Good? Bad? Meh?**

 **Review!**

 **B.j.**


	3. Chapter 3

**Thanks for all of your reviews; they are very much appreciated. I need more!**

 **Assignments and tests are slow today so I said, "why not write another chapter dude?" and I replied, "meh, why not?" and here we are!**

 **I wish to make something clear; Wave is an** _ **island**_ **country, it is also the name of the village inside the country. The** _ **only**_ **village in Wave country, so technically Naruto is the daimyo of Wave country but he would choose to be referred to as the** _ **Leader**_ **of Wave country, not the daimyo.**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 3

Our young protagonist was currently looking over a full scale map of Nami no kuni. The dark one had come back with good news that the people there had not put up a fuss when the country was claimed and so far they still didn't have any complaints. He was outlining crucial parts' of the island country to erect walls and place harsh security seals to prevent external attacks. There were several Daku water clones still in the village, their purpose were to aid in construction of houses and ships for trading, looting Gato's and the daimyos strongholds and maintaining general internal security.

He was still patting himself on the back for seeing the potential in the country; there was an abundance in trees and the soil was rich so there won't be lacking in raw materials for buildings. The problems lay on the fact that water pollution from the dead tyrant had killed and scared off water life from around the island, his plan was to clean it up to attract them back. The villagers were feeding off of Gato's food storage which so happened to be enough for a while.

He had the perfect barrier seals to place on the borders and the Daku clones were as tireless as their 'boss' so the wall would be complete in no time. He had to focus mainly on security first before he could focus more on internal affairs.

He hovered his chair over to a neat stack of paper and selected a dozen from the top of a pile, he hovered back to his former position and handed the seals to the real Daku, "these are permanent; their on paper but when they contact the ground and my chakra is poured in they'd _tattoo_ themselves to the ground. Place them on these points on the island and have your clones start construction on the walls immediately _after_ they are placed. It is important to they start _after_ the seals are placed, _behind_ the walls. If they are behind the walls then seal masters cannot access them to create counter seals. Understood?"

Daku bowed, "Hai, Naruto-sama," and he marched out of the apartment. The young fuinjutsu user then by his window, the one overlooking the village, and mused on what to do next, whether or not to start re-habilitating the waves dying economy or to start training the people to defend the country. He was broken out of his thoughts when the 'X' contact seal on his stomach tingled and Daku landed softly beside him, he was sure he was the real one because of how the seal reacted to his presence. "There has been a small hitch in the plans, Naruto-sama," he was on one of his knees and his eyes were on the ground,

"at ease Daku," The boy still stayed where he was, looking out the window with one hand propping his head up and the other arm on his wheelchair, "and that is?" the dark one stood up smoothly,

"I was on my way out of the village when I saw a two genin teams assembled before the gate,"

"How is that a problem?"

"With them is a bridge builder that had come to this village months ago to seek aid, their function is to protect him against anyone Gato sends to kill him, but he didn't tell them the complete truth; the mission is a C rank and not and A rank. The people of wave have tried sending messages for him to come back but from his stance he thinks those messages are traps,"

The pale blonde boy furrowed his eyebrows in deep thought, "which genin teams are on his protection detail?"

"Team seven consisting of their squad leader, Hatake Kakashi, and the genin are Uchiha Sasuke, Haruno Sakura and Sai-"

"The pale, nameless boy that just appeared after their graduation?" he said, intrigued as he swivelled to face the creation, "he is not on the reserve genin list, Konoha citizens log or even in the immigrants list. I suspect he works for a higher power, send a clone to find out all it can about him and if he isn't a threat then he should report back," Daku snapped his fingers and a shadow clone popped into existence, saluted to both of them and blurred out of the apartment, "continue,"

"Team ten consisting of their squad leader, Sarutobi Asuma, and the genin are Yamanaka Ino, Akimichi Chouji and Nara Shikamaru," hearing the last name Naruto scowled lightly,

"A Nara…"

"Precisely, Naruto-sama, should I dispatch of him in Wave?"

"No…if he dies in foreign territory it could be seen as an act of war, wave would be destroyed before it could raise any sort of defence. What is the mental condition of the people of wave?"

"Most are still suffering trauma from the despotic rule and others are recovering from critical malnourishment,"

"What have you done about it?"

"I have made Henge'd water clones to speak with those traumatised as a way to vent out their feelings, it took a while for them to become familiar with them but they are now fully expressing themselves. The cure would have to do until we are able to recruit a psychologist to the country. Numerous clones have also been sent outside wave to hunt and gather for the hungry while the farms we have planted are growing, quite fast might I add, and the animals are still breeding,"

Naruto wasn't particularly in a rush to send Daku out because he was fairly sure the genin teams with Tazuna were going at a civilian pace, "excellent, I want you to go back to Wave as quickly as possible and spy on the security detail, if they get past the borders try and scare them off, if they are adamant retreat and allow them passage, still spy on them during their stay and if they get too nosy…stop them, use a bit of force if you have to,"

"Hai Naruto-sama,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

' _Curious…'_ was the one thought of the legendary copy ninja, Hatake Kakashi as he waltzed past a 'puddle' of water, he discreetly sent hand signals to his fellow jounin-sensei, Sarutobi Asuma, who nodded and calmly walked past the 'puddle'. Kakashi's genin team were taking the lead, Asuma's were bringing up the back and the client, Tazuna, was safely nestled in the middle. None of the genin besides Sai and Sasuke noticed the non-verbal conversation.

It was silent as they got a few meters away from the 'puddle' until…

 _Clank! Click!_

"One down!"

"Asuma-sensei!"

The small body of water exploded outwards, bringing out two masked ninjas that had a thick, spike chain between them, they had just 'finished off' Asuma and were now charging through the defences hole supposedly at Kakashi. The jounin blinked in confusion at their target, which so happened to be him, and 'didn't react on time' when a chain wrapped around him and turned him into minced meat,

"Two down!"

"Kakashi-sensei!"

Tazuna cursed foully and hid behind the two female members of the joint genin mission, while Sasuke and Sai ran at the demon brothers. Sasuke threw a kunai straight and true at the chain and pinned the metal to a tree behind them, the demon brothers were forced to dislocate their joint weapon and fight the two boys separately.

The Uchiha seemed to have overestimated his taijutsu prowess; he was forced to keep dodging poison tipped claws without seeing the smallest of opening to attack, while Sai was doing well enough; he was parrying the claws with a small tanto that had come out of his paint brush. Out of nowhere a massive bouncing ball of flesh landed solidly on the chunin battling Sasuke and the one facing Sai froze abruptly, "shadow possession success," Shikamaru drawled.

Both sensei dropped down from the trees utterly unharmed, "well done, all of you," Asuma said to the joint genin team,

"Sensei! You're alive!" both girls screamed, while both Senseis' rolled their eyes,

"Yeah good work, now relax while I go and interrogate these two," he tied up the twitching demon brother that had been flattened by Chouji's 'Meat Tank' and also tied up the other demon brother still being held by Shikamaru's 'Shadow Possession', he dragged both brothers to a tree, facing away from the genin, "who do you work for?"

"We're not talking," the conscious brother spat,

"Oh well, I tried," he gingerly pulled out a kunai and was about to stab the chunin's arm but he was forced to catch a lightning fast fist from a shadowy opponent, "hmmm, who are you?" the person hum quietly and pulled his fist back, he then threw a smoke bomb down. "Shit," Kakashi muttered and tried using his lone normal eye to see through the smoke, cursing again when both demon brothers and the mysterious attacker disappeared,

"Kakashi? Any problem?" the Third's son shouted form the clearing, he had instructed the genin to re-run inventory to keep them busy,

The copy ninja, stalked out of the forest and stopped a few feet in front of the bridge builder, "yes, I believe Tazuna here has some explaining to do,"

"What do you mean sensei?" Sakura asked,

"I mean why would two chunin missing ninjas ambush us on our way to wave country, they were going to attack Tazuna and when I caught them someone just appeared and escaped with them," he folded his arms and glared, "well? Go on," The bridge builder stood strong against the glare, raising his head defiantly but when the other jounin glared at him he caved, telling them all the real reason he asked for a mission, why he didn't give the correct mission details, and what he actually intended during the mission, "that's it, we're going back to Konoha,"

"I'm going to Wave sensei," Sasuke grunted and crossed his arms, "I'm not going to have any unfinished missions in my record,"

"I'm going too!" Ino and Sakura squealed and latched onto Sasuke's legs,

"What of you Shikamaru, do you want to go?"

"It'd be too troublesome but whatever,"

"Yeah, whatever," Chouji parroted,

Asuma face palmed, "we'll send a messenger hawk back to the Hokage and tell him about what happened, maybe send re-enforcements' if possible," with their unanimous decision made they proceeded to wave.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Daku looked down at the lone conscious demon brother and hummed dispassionately, "you've failed your mission…" he was looming over the brother, who was on his knees. From his right forearm a stake shot out smoothly, "what do you have to say for yourself?"

"We're sorry Daku-sama; we were outnumbered and outgunned,"

"Then why didn't you retreat and give a status report to Zabuzza?" the dark one said coolly as he raised the stake arm to his face and looked at the groove lines running neatly from the base to the sharp tip,

The demon brother began shaking, "we-we just wanted to see if-if we could pick them off, we thought we had killed the copy ninja and the other jounin. We are so-sorry Daku-sama,"

Daku narrowed his red sclera eyes down at the quivering chunin as he lowered his stake arm, "remember who you work for and next time think with your heads before you go for the kill, do I make myself clear," the chunin frantically nodded, muttering his 'thank you' repeatedly, "get out of my sight," the chunin picked his brother up and ran straight for Wave country where they would receive medical treatment. It was his master's plans to recruit the demon brothers to his personal army and offer them sanctuary and when they got waves economy up, payment. The brothers were the only ones Naruto had hired…

Daku retracted his stake and sprinted across the border, slipping into the darkness of the forest and navigating himself expertly till he dropped directly behind Zabuzza, he had to duck a horizontal sword swipe immediately after. The mist missing ninja grunted sourly and stood down when he saw it was his boss, "what the problem?"

The dark one straightened up, "Konoha ninjas are on their way, my master says we should…dissuade their progress as much as possible and if it can't be helped we should retreat and allow them through," he turned his head and looked at Haku, the masked hunter ninja and continued, "you are to provide support when it can't be helped," the boy nodded and fixed his mask before he sprang into a tree and hide himself, "they should be here in a few minutes. Wait for my signal," with those parting words Daku faded into the darkness,

Zabuzza shivered, "that guy gives me the heeby jeebies,"

Haku giggled from his perch, "me too,"

The man smirked and mentally prepared himself for the fight that would most definitely come, he calmed his breathing and about ten minutes later he heard a bird call from the distance, the unsaid signal that the Konoha ninjas were there, "show time kid," and he swung his sword at the ninjas…

"everybody duck!" the ninjas took the yelled command to heart by lying flat on the ground, Sasuke forcing Tazuna down fast enough for the lethal head cleaving blade to waft over him and thunk into a tree. They stood up and the genin took standard formation around their client as Zabuzza appeared on his sword, "Zabuzza Momochi, The Demon of the Bloody Mist,"

The Demon of the Bloody Mist chuckled darkly, sending tendrils of fear down the genins' spines, and grinned from under his face bandages, "I see my reputation precedes me Sharingan no Kakashi,"

The Uchiha sharply turned to his team's sensei, "Sharingan?"

"I'll tell you later," he waved the boy away; his eyes were still zeroed in on the missing ninja. Zabuzza leaped off his sword, his hands dragging it with him, and landed softly on the ground, "I guess you're here to assassinate Tazuna-san," it wasn't a question, it was a statement."

"You could say that," the man leaned on his weapon as another ninja landed quietly beside him,

"You!" Kakashi exclaimed with wide eyes, "You're the one that took the demon brothers," then he couldn't see the man too well with all the shadows but now he could clearly see the camo turban wearing man, all he could see clearly were the eerie red eyes.

"Yes I am, my name is Daku and would you all be so kind as to leave Wave country?"

"Why should we leave?"

"That is none of your business, I shall only say this once more, leave Wave country, and leave Tazuna-san behind if he wishes to stay,"

"Technically Tazuna-san is our client and we can't be guaranteed of his safety if we leave him,"

"Which leaves the option of force," Daku looked at Zabuzza, you handle the other jounin while I deal with Kakashi,"

"You six stay here and guard Tazuna," Kakashi said as a thick mist rolled around them. The joint genin teams were them blasted with an invisible pressing force, it felt like kami had dropped a bag of stones on them and they began to see the hundreds of ways they could die. Zabuzza grinned and said his usual intimidating words, after hearing them Sasuke contemplated stabbing himself and getting over it but Kakashi halted him with his reassuring words, "don't worry, I promise I'll protect all of you" he eye smiled and the mist covered him and Asuma from their vision.

"Do not make empty promises, Kakashi-san," Daku said quietly and snap kicked Kakashi's right thigh but the veteran jounin raised his guard fast enough and blocked the blow, wincing when the limb met his guard, he made to punch Daku but the dark one blurred under his outstretched arm and savagely dealt an upper cut to the masked ninjas chin, the jounin exploded into water half a second later, "water clone…" he sprouted out a stake arm and batted some thrown shuriken away, he then slide away from a kick and raised his stake arm to block a kick, Kakashi grunted in pain when his leg met the solid stone stake and dropped it, he jumped up when Daku tried to sweep his legs from under him and axe kicked the creation as he came down. Daku crossed his arms and absorbed the full brunt of the blow, shuffling back involuntarily, and pushed the limb away.

The two breathed out and flashed at each other, falling into a dizzyingly fast sequence of punches, kicks, blocks and parries. The mist blew away courtesy of Asuma's 'Wind release: Great Breakthrough', so all could behold the blazingly fast sequence of attacks both were dealing out to the other.

"Wow…" Ino breathed and Sakura dumbly nodded in agreement, Sai though was busy observing the masked opponent his teams sensei was battling against, he wasn't wearing the standard sign of a missing ninja, a hitaite slashed out, and he wasn't moving like someone who should have a spine, noticing the perfect somersault over Kakashi when the copy ninja attempted to slide a kunai through his chest.

Kakashi thrust the blade forward again but Daku wrapped his right arm over the man's arm and Spartan kicked him in his belly, throwing him away, "I had to limit my speed to jounin level for you and I have to say I am very impressed, Kakashi-san,"

The copy ninja grunted to his feet, "thank you but I take it that isn't as fast as you can go,"

"You are correct," he now had stakes coming out of both arms, "now stop holding back,"

The orange masked man pulled down his mask so both his eyes exposed, "I plan on doing that," he brought out another kunai and sprinted at Daku, bringing both knives down on him. Daku raised an arm up and caught the attack, kneeing Kakashi in his belly and elbowing him in the chest so fast Kakashi felt the pain _after_ the attack. He was thrown back again.

Asuma was holding his own against the swordsman with his trench knives, often briefly looking at his fellow jounin in between attacks. He side stepped a smash and stabbed at Zabuzza, the man lifted the flat side of his sword impossibly fast and the two weapons clanged off each other. The mist missing ninja kicked Asuma and kicked again at his shoulder, but the Thirds son wasn't a former Fire Guardian for nothing; he caught both legs and spun the surprised ninja in the air. Zabuzza used the aerial spin to slash his sword down and Asuma flipped away from the sword slice and went through some hand seals, 'Fire release: Ash Pile Burning,' he blew out billows of ash at the mist missing ninja and when Zabuzza was fully covered Asuma gnashed his teeth together

 _Boom!_

The resounding explosion shock waved past him and hit Daku, who had just elbowed Kakashi away, and threw the creation into the water as well as the copy ninja. Daku was the first one to recover, which was really, _**really**_ , fast; he stood on top of the water and trapped Kakashi in a 'Water release: Water Prison'. Zabuzza, thinking he could hold out against the ash by holding his breath and closing his eyes, was thrown into the forest and safely caught by Haku. The man's breath was short and laboured, and his body was severely burnt. His critical condition forced the ice user to knock the man out and focus all his attention on him, forgetting about his boss who was still battling with the other Konoha ninjas.

"Hold on Kakashi; I'm coming!" Asuma yelled and dropped onto the water's surface expertly, the water not even rippling under him, he brought up his trench knives and murmured his next jutsu, 'Flying Swallow,' the edges of his knives hummed with invisible wind chakra and it elongated, sharped and overall put a foreboding feeling into Daku. The turban wearing creation raised one hand and made seal less water clones that didn't waste any time to dash at the other only wind user in Konoha besides his master, Naruto.

The wind user clenched his teeth resolutely and slashed, hacked and stabbed mercilessly at the clones. Clones are well known to have only less than a quarter of their 'bosses' strength so it was understandable how over twenty water clones couldn't get into Asuma's guard fast enough to take him out, the long wind blades sliced them into ribbons and dispelled them back. The jounin was making progress to where the caster of the water clones was holding his comrades hostage, perspiration dripping from his hair along with water that had exploded off the water clones.

Daku stopped summoning clones and resolved to taking pot shots at Asuma with his stone stakes. The dark one hoped his chakra battery had enough chakra stored up as back up. Though cutting the strong rocks out of the air was easy enough the projectiles were coming at Asuma faster and faster, he needed a distraction and he needed it now.

Sasuke answered his unsaid prayer with a massive demon wind shuriken.

The last loyal Uchiha had grown tired of watching his teachers fight and had wanted to get in on the action, so against his better judgement and Shikamaru's frantic gestures for him to stand down, he pulled out the giant shuriken and spun it straight and true at Daku. The weapon whistled in the air and time slowed down, Daku stopped his stone stake onslaught and fired a precise stake at the shuriken, breaking it into millions of pieces and the wind user took the split second opening professionally.

He threw one of his trench knives, still coated with wind chakra, at Daku.

The dark one hummed sourly and increased the chakra flow going to his legs, the water under him exploded upwards and the lethal knife whistled past him. Kakashi escaped from his position thanked Asuma quietly and both jounin took strong stances on the water as their opponent landed smoothly. He looked at both jounin and began flashing through some hand seals, Kakashi followed half a second later and both went in sync and Asuma went through his own hand seals,

'Wind release: Great Breakthrough!'

'Water release: Great Waterfall technique!'

'Water release: Great Waterfall technique'

It was the wind technique that attacked first, followed closely by Kakashi's water attack then Daku's water attack. The wind technique smashed at Daku's water attack, weakening it, and Kakashi's blew straight through it, ramming into the wide eyed Daku. The dark creation regained his footing on the water fast and began another set of hand seals, feeling his body already tapping in on his battery store, the water wave that had crashed into him settled down so he could attack, 'Fire release: Fire Dragon Bullet' he droned his jutsu and began spitting fire bullets at the duo from where his mouth was supposed to be under his turban.

"How much chakra does this guy have?!" Kakashi exclaimed and ran length wise away from the exploding fire bullets, his fellow jounin ran in the opposite direction, and towards Daku,

"I don't know but he won't last for long!" Asuma used his lone trench knife slapped the fire bullets away, he ran at Daku and slashed but the creation stopped his jutsu and rolled away. The man kept slashing at him; Daku felt his battery store emptying, until a wind blade nicked his arm. For the first time since his creation Daku felt _**pain**_ , the blade had passed through the tube that supplied his arms with chakra but not far enough to cut it off completely, he masked it well and kept stepping away from the lethal knives,

In a burst of chakra Daku stepped into Asuma's guard and kicked him far back, and punched Kakashi's chest when he erupted out of the water. His legs were shaking as he levelled a killing glare at the Konoha ninjas before he blurred into the dark forest.

Kakashi and Asuma, who had recovered sighed in relief. The wind user retrieved his other knife and staggered back to the joint genin team, the man looked at the veteran curiously, "Kakashi…"

 _Thump_

"Sensei!

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto lightly glared at the letter he had received a day after he had sent the dark one to his mission, "so they got past you, Daku…" he sighed and closed his eyes, "it was inevitable you see your limit," he pumped more chakra into the 'X' seal, so much it filled the cloth creation in wave and almost filled the battery seal, he neatly folded the letter and sealed it into an arm of his chair, he then tapped the seal on the right arm of his chair and it lifted off the ground and hovered under a tree in his special place, the same place he had been going to relax and where he had personally met with Hinata, he cut off the wind chakra so it touched down. He now understood why his 'X' seal tingled without his loyal creation being around, it meant that Daku was actually suffering from chakra exhaustion and was in dire need of chakra to repair himself. The water clone that had delivered the letter looked barely alive and had dispelled after he had dropped the letter. The shadow clones that had been with him had even dispelled so they could transfer some of their chakra to their 'boss'.

There still weren't any clones to guard him but he didn't need them yet. He could hover to his special place before sunrise and study seals till sunset when he would hover back in the dark.

Quite frankly he was surprised that his seal creation stood up so well against two A rank jounin ninjas that had names in the bingo book and were both reputed in and out of the village for their skills.

He was proud of his dark servant.

He already began spinning plans in his head to increase Daku's skills. He unsealed an empty scroll and began scribbling the training regimes his creation would go through when it has fully recuperated, he sealed in some advance water and an advanced genjutsu into the scroll.

The right arm of his wheelchair tingled thrice. A minute later he spied four pairs of eyes (well…three pairs of eyes and a pair of dark glasses) spying at him from a bush. He ignored them and kept writing until he had finished, he sealed the scroll back, mentally reminding himself to send it later and leaned into his chair to observe the sun, which surprisingly enough was setting.

There was quiet in the circle of trees, that is, until Kiba shouted, "I don't know what you're freaking about Hinata, he can even walk!" he stomped out of the bush to the calm blonde boy,

"Kiba-kun!" the flustered girl scampered out as well and tried to yank the Inuzuka back but he pulled his arm away from her and stopped a few feet away from Naruto, his ninken, Akamaru, beside him. Shino chose to be quieter; he briskly walked out and stopped beside Hinata. The girl was busy hiding behind Kiba,

"Hey, Blondie, what's up with you?" he crossed his arm and waited for the sitting boys reply,

Naruto's facial expressions were smooth and almost emotionless; he allowed his eyebrows to furrow slightly and smirked almost invisibly, "I don't know what you mean,"

"I mean, what are you doing to mess up Hinata," Kiba growled and took an intimidating step forward, Naruto though wasn't in anyway intimidating; he didn't move back,

"I've only met your team mate yesterday, I don't know how I could 'mess' her up after one meeting,"

"Aha! So you do admit you _can_ mess her up!"

Naruto shrugged, "maybe, I'm not in the mood for your accusations. Please leave,"

Kiba pulled away from Hinata's grasp and walked directly to Naruto, he stopped in front of the boy and poked his forehead, "yeah? And what are you going to do about it?"

"Kiba…"

"I know what I'm doing Shino," Kiba barked over his shoulder, he faced the Uzumaki again and poked his forehead, eliciting no facial response, "so? What'cha gonna do about it, Blondie?"

"I am _**warning**_ you-" he was cut off by another poke, Shino's hive was now buzzing loudly and the bug boy took a cautious step back, dragging Hinata with him. Akamaru obviously knew something was amiss; he whimpered and hid behind Shino. Naruto grit his teeth and tapped a seal on the left arm of his chair…

A dome of wind, starting from around Naruto and shooting outwards, repulsed Kiba away, Naruto tapped another seal on the arm of his wheelchair and a rope shot out from the arm, the rope wrapped tightly around the air borne Inuzuka's throat. Kiba clawed at the rope but found it futile, and Naruto tapped the seal so the rope slowly pulled him back. The boy was cursing, gurgling words and struggling against the throat restraint, he looked up at his captor and struggled all over again when Naruto unsealed a stick from his trusty arm chair.

"Do you know what I'm going to do with this?" Kiba whimpered and tried to pull away but, again, the rope held strong, "correct, I'm going to beat some sense into you," he brought the stick down on Kiba's head, the wooden weapon clacked against the boys cranium, and Naruto raised the stick up again, "apologise," _thwack!_ "Apologise," _clack!_ "Apologise," _thump!_ "Apologise…"

"For the love of all things bright and beautiful, Kiba just apologise!" Shino yelled, his hive on the verge of rebelling, Hinata was shakily standing behind him, looking on surprised on how well the crippled boy defended himself,

"You should listen to their advice before I bring out my _metal_ stick," Naruto said ominously, his face was still a perfect pale slate and the wooden stick was raised up for another stick. Kiba was rubbing his sore head and struggling against the ropes, "last chance-"

"Fine," the boy gurgled, he gnashed his teeth and spat some blood out of his mouth, "fine, I'm sorry! Now let me go!" he was massaging his head and whimpered again when the stick was smashed on his head,

"Say please,"

"Please!" Naruto tapped the seal and the rope, as if it had a mind of its own, unwound from Kiba's neck and retracted back into his chair, he tapped another seal and another dome of air threw the boy away,

"Good. Now I don't want to see any of you here again. Leave. Now." Hinata ran to Kiba and helped him to his feet as the three genin ran out of the clearing. Before Hinata left she turned and sent a glance at Naruto, mouthing 'sorry' at him but Naruto wasn't looking; he was focusing on the setting sun. The girl tried to cover her disappointment and left with Kiba.

Not too long later a dozen Daku clones landed around him and fell on their knees, the one at the front spoke, "we are sorry for our late arrival Naruto-sama!"

"Don't worry about it; it was a nice exercise," he sealed up the wooden stick, "any news?"

"Yes, the jounin Konoha ninjas are still recovering from the fight and are training the genin in case the boss ever attacks again,"

"I don't care what they do, as long as they don't go snooping into my business they can stay. I mean about wave,"

"The town hall has been fully restored and the daimyos palace has been fortified, ready for you to come whenever you want. Work on the walls is under way, the boss has already placed the seals, and he says it'll be finished in a few weeks. A barn has already been filled and the masses have been fed so rice prices are lower. The first ship has been finished and we are currently exporting half of the farm produce to Hidden Waterfall village, they are still sceptical about our trading alliance but they aren't putting up any sort of fuss. The head of that village has scheduled a meeting with the boss in two months, precisely over the day Konoha hold their chunin exams, to see if there is any way to extend the alliance. The bridge is being built and the Konoha ninjas are still suspicious of Wave."

"Good," he unsealed the letter he had written before and handed it to the speaking water clone, "take that back to your 'boss' and tell him to study it all," the clone saluted and ran to wave, he pointed at a random clone "I want you to go to the forbidden section of the library and copy the security seal down if there _is_ any, bring it back to me at my apartment so I can give you the counter seal and go back with three others to copy as much scrolls as possible, irrespective of what they are talking about," the clone saluted and ran off to the library, Naruto pointed at another clone, "you…I'm hungry, go and get me some ramen, the legal way" the clone bowed and went off to perform his duty, "the rest of you are to escort me home,"

His security detail marched around him as he hovered to his apartment, it was totally dark but the clone navigating his chair guided him to the right path. He allowed his loyal servants clones to take him home as his mind wandered. He was thinking about a lot of things; how to incorporate Hinata into his master plan, how to prove Wave's faithfulness to the alliance to hidden Waterfall, how to attract more alliances, what counter seal he would have to come up with, among other things.

All in all, he wouldn't be idle for a very long time.

 **Authors note**

 **Never underestimate Asuma.** _ **Never**_ **.**

 **What'cha think? Good? Bad? Meh?**

 **Review!**

 **B.j.**


	4. Chapter 4

**I quite surprised that this many people actually like this story! Your reviews are also wicked awesome, keep 'em coming dudes!**

 **Next chapter up…**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 4

 _Time skip: Two months later_

The dark creation waltzed calmly to Wave country's loading docks. He was wearing a maroon coloured leaders robe with the new symbol for wave spread largely on the back; it was a circle with four wave lines inside it. Daku also wore dark black sunglasses that fully hide his red sclera eyes. Under the robes he was wearing his combat clothes. His bone chilling red eyes roved over the sailors that were loading the large ship with rice, those who saw him bowed politely and went back to their work and Daku nodded to their greetings. He walked up the board walk of the ship and proceeded his journey to the captain's quarters. He knocked on the door and entered when the person on the other side of the door shouted for him to enter.

The ship's captain abruptly stood up from his desks chair and bowed low to Daku, "Daku-sama! Please sir, take a seat," the shadow creation sat down briskly in the chair and leaned back, "are you here for the report, Daku-sama?"

"Yes, this is the fourth voyage to Waterfall village and I have seen the profit myself but I want to see if there are any problems. Pirates? Scurvy? Pests?"

"The only problem I can report about is that there was a minor leak in the ship but it was patched up soon after. The ship is clean and the crew are screened for any prior diseases before they are allowed to board,"

"Good," there were three ships which their main function were to export rice to Waterfall and three more to import the profit and clothe materials from Waterfall back to Wave. There was also one ship Naruto had assigned to be made, it was made to bring in and take out tourists that were ever to come, so far there were only some tourists from Waterfall, those that were curious about the growing country that had allied themselves with their village. It was more like a luxury cruise that was still developing; he was using the meagre supplies Wave had.

Wave had come a long way since they were liberated 6 months ago. The walls had been constructed and so far it had captured numerous Konoha ninjas that had come to spy on them. They were set free, after being thoroughly warned but the hidden leaf village were getting too persistent. Naruto had written a formal letter to the Hokage as the Leader of Wave a day ago, requesting the Hokage to stop sending spies and so far none have shown up.

There was a fledgling ninja and civilian Academy that was fully manned by Henge'd Daku clones, so they wouldn't intimidate the students. The clones were teaching what they had memorized according to the students level. There was a library that was fully stocked with all the memorized scrolls as well as had a very secure forbidden section that held Naruto's custom seals and S-rank jutsu. There was a teacher's school for those that wanted to teach in the ninja academy as well as one for the civilian academy. They would release their first generation of ninjas in about a year. Wave wasn't in dire need of defence; Naruto's seals were _very_ strong but the growing country did need the money from missions.

There were many farms dotted outside the wall. The seals behind the walls cast a dome around wave that alarmed them if it was being breached by anyone unfamiliar that the seal had not been made to acknowledge. The residents that opted to stay outside the wall as well as within it to what was now known as Wave central had key cards that were keyed to their blood, meaning that if it was ever stolen by a foreigner the backlash if it was ever used would be…very unpleasant. The residents were to slide the key cards over a small seal matrix on the wall and the wall would ripple open (Fuin-genjutsu), revealing the gate keepers. The water life was still recovering but presently there were cat fish and small prawns swimming around, eating the plankton and kelp the fishers feed them. The fishers weren't allowed to fish for them yet but he predicted that in a few more months…fishing season could start.

Daku nodded and left the room, he looked at the sun and mentally smirked when he noticed the tourist ship that were on their way to the loading dock. He stood back, half an hour later, when the ship docked. The board walk dropped a few feet in front of him, he spied his scheduled visitor coming down and he opened his arms warmly, "welcome to Wave country Shibuki-dono,"

The current leader of Waterfall smiled at the other village leader and shook Daku's outstretched hand, "thank you, Daku-dono,"

"I hope your journey here was pleasant," Daku continued as he released Shibuki's hand, the man's two guards stood behind him protectively and he spied a curious looking mint haired girl peak out from the man's back,

"The service was excellent and the water was calm, thank you for asking,"

"I assume you wish to speak about our alliance, our hotels are still under construction but you are welcome to stay at the tower,"

"Before we go I would like to introduce you to some people, first," he pushed the girl behind him forward, "this is Fuu, we shall discuss more about her later. The next person is Samsato Lujo, head of the Hidden Fang village," Samsato wore a thick tan leather vest and pants with fur shoulder pads and fur lined hoodie. He wore thick tanned boots that had noticeable fang like blades jutting out of the top. The man scowled and stomped down, two jounin Fang ninjas marching after him,

"Welcome to Wave country, Samsato-dono,"

"Thank you for receiving me, Daku-dono," the hidden fang leader grunted politely, Daku knew his type, the tough as nails on the outside and the soft as cotton candy on the inside. His suspicions were confirmed when the feral man smirked sharply at him, he took Daku's hand in a firm hand shake,

Daku turned back to Shibuki and calmly whispered, "I thought we agreed for only you to come,"

"Yes we did agree but I wished to bring up a matter with others allied to my village, please do not be offended,"

"On the contrary, if whatever aids in making my country strong then the more the merrier,"

Shibuki bowed and continued his presentation, "next is the leader of the village hidden in the marshes, Tu Rinsuki," the person to walk down was a woman in a knee length light green battle kimono, the edges of the kimono were embroided with silver thread and the sleeves were also silver lined. Her hair was tied in a messy bun with two chop sticks and there was a curious tattoo of a mongoose wrapped around her left arm from her shoulder to her wrist, it was curious because mongoose don't particularly reside in swampy environments. The woman sent him a finger wiggling wave and slide down the board. Daku shook her hand but the woman came in for a hug, after an awkward half a minute of indecisiveness they settled on nods of respect. He waved at her battle kimono wearing konouchi guards, and they bowed respectfully in return.

"Welcome to Wave country, Tu-dono," **(hahahaha, I can't help but say this in a Russian accent. Go on, try it!)**

"It's a pleasure to be here, Daku-dono,"

"Next is the leader of the village hidden by the chill, Yumi Chou," the woman that stepped down was a slender woman with pale white skin that went well with her thick white parka. She wore a knee length brown dress and underneath it knee length brown socks with white furry boots on her feet. Her hair was a flowing blonde that reached past to her heels. She glided down and presented her fingers for Daku to kiss but the creation took the hand and shook it firmly, eliciting a wince and a scowl from the woman. Her white fur wearing guards stifled their laughter from behind their nose long hoodies.

"Welcome to my country, Yumi-dono,"

The woman sighed wistfully and clenched his hand firmly, making the dark creation actually mentally smirk at the strength behind the hold, "thank you oh so much, Daku-dono," she smiled warmly, contrasting her 'Ice Queen' posture and shoulder checked the dark creation as she walked past,

"Last but definitely not the least is the leader of hidden Smoke village, Genzai Kitsuen Chensumoka" **(I swear to God! That literally means 'Currently Smoking Chain Smoker' in Japanese. Check it out for yourself if you don't believe me.)** The last village leader to walk out was a big boned man that wore an open grey robe that greatly exposed his robust belly and red silk pants that had a rainbow coloured sash bolding it up, he had bandages wrapped around his forehead like he had an injury a while back and in his mouth was a thick cigar. He had a fat nose and thin pink lips with pupil less black eyes. He was light skinned and very…healthy. The man grinned widely, his cigar clenched between his teeth as he brought the dark one into a bone crushing hug, his guards were two leanly muscled twin men that had wore gas masks helmets.

"Welcome to Wave country, Kitsuen-dono," Daku huffed, losing the breathe he didn't need, he pried himself out of the man's warm hug and straightened his robe,

Kitsuen breathed out some smoke, a thick cloud of it escaped his mouth and nose, "wonderful to be here, Daku-dono!" he boomed clapping Daku's shoulder familiarly, the dark ones knees nearly buckled under the supposed friendly shoulder pat, though he did grunt and step away,

"I am glad. Now if you all don't mind let us proceed to my place so you all can rest up and we can start discussions tomorrow," the ship's crew were running around behind them, getting the large sea vessel ready for their next voyage. One of each guard went back to the ship to retrieve their respective village leader's luggage and the group proceeded to the place they would be staying at before their meeting the next day.

Daku was honestly happy that the first building to be finished up was the Leaders Mansion which was the new and improved daimyos palace. It was a five story house that he had made sure was made to Naruto's specific tastes, the wall papers were soothing and the paintings were calming. He had constructed a library in the village not too long after so he didn't need to keep too many seals in the mansion. There were rooms set apart for special individuals that ever wanted to visit and the hotels weren't available. There were also places the servants stayed at so the service would be fast. The whole place was divided up into the house helps lodgings which were in a section of the west wing of the mansion, the visitors' lodgings which were in the east wing, the kitchen was a massive place in the west wing and the Wave leaders sleeping quarters and office was in the east wing. The additions to the east wing was a large living room, a dining room, a parlour, a children's section for those that needed constant supervision and, of course, a bar.

Daku had assigned each village leader to their rooms and had already sent his master a message on what to do next. The reply didn't take too long to reach him; water clones were fast runners when pumped with enough chakra.

The next day found all the village leaders in Waves town hall, in the meeting room. The table was rectangular with Daku sitting at the head, the leaders of hidden Smoke and Chill to his right and hidden Marsh and Waterfall to his left. There was a large map of the elemental nations on the table with all the respective village leaders villages highlighted. The talks started soon after they had exchanged pleasantries, with Shibuki speak up, "with your permission, Daku-dono, I would like to explain why I have brought these wonderful people with me to your country," Daku nodded for the man to proceed, "My village has a particularly unsavoury history, this history tends to scare off potential allies, so if we are opportune to gain an ally, even if it's a trading alliance, then we are very cautious. It was Hidden Smoke that had first come to us, seeking military aid as well as with trading, we agreed. Then came Hidden Chill with the same goal and we also allied. Soon after Hidden Marsh and Hidden Fang came in and Waterfall was blessed with four alliances,"

He paused to look at the occupants of the room if they had any problem with what he had said, "Please continue, Shibuki-dono," Yumi, the leader of hidden Chill, said airily,

"Waterfall was blessed with four beneficial alliances and as an act of good will I scheduled a meeting, which is today, to connect all the villages and the country, Waterfall is allied with. I see no reason why we smaller villages can't stick together." He sat down and Kitsuen, the leader of hidden Smoke, said,

"I see the logic in what you are saying, Shibuki-dono, my village too has not had a good history, with all the explosions setting off randomly all those years ago, tourism and trading has reduced until Shibuki-dono was gracious enough to grant me and my people with a trading alliance,"

Yumi coughed politely, "I believe all our villages haven't been seen in the most savoury of light. Chill has been isolated because of an epidemic that struck us years ago when there weren't too many healers, it took the lives of our animals and some of our children. We have tackled it a while ago during my predecessors era and we are now free of it,"

"Fang has also been struck with calamity; our wolves went feral and killed a lot of people before help could reach arrive. Research has confirmed that it was a genjutsu after a wolf pup had been recovered and interviewed, we do not know who had cast it but it reduced our populace, we are still struggling to regain our power. My father was too strong headed to seek aid from our neighbours but I wouldn't be that dim," Samsato grunted sourly,

"Marsh, quite frankly, is a name that puts off most people from visiting. We also have a record number of floods; we have adapted to this and have thrived. We sought out military alliance with Waterfall because some of the ninjas under my command cannot adapt to fighting above our natural terrain; we send them to Waterfall to train and Waterfall too send over their ninja to get used to unfamiliar territory. Our villages have greatly developed from the association,"

"And Wave has been suffering from abject poverty and corruption until it was liberated," Daku finished, it now dawned on all the village leaders except Shibuki why they were all assembled, "you wish for all of our villages to come to a mutual agreement and ally ourselves with each other,"

"Yes," he pointed at all the villages highlighted on the map individually, making it a lopsided hexagon, "I don't see why all our respective villages can't ally with each other,"

"I second that," Yumi said nonchalantly, though she had an under tone of an overly giddy school girl,

"I agree, it would benefit my village as well as all of yours," Samsato said, he too hide his excitement, Shibuki looked over the younger leaders proudly,

"I as well agree!" Kitsuen bellowed not even trying to hide his joy with the massive shit eating grin plastered on his face,

"Eh, why not?" Tu said, leaning back and crossing her legs,

"Then its settled, the six of our villages are to be fully allied, let us iron out the details," Shibuki said and Daku unsealed a large empty scroll, he spread it before him and brought out a brush and some ink from his sleeve, he froze momentarily and dropped the brush, "is there a problem, Daku-dono?"

"Yes…a minor one, depending on how you look at it. What I am about to tell you all is in strict confidence that you would keep it to yourselves and also as an act of confidence, to foster a sense of camaraderie among our new alliance. I only ask that you understand,"

Tu sat up and furrowed her eyebrows at the turban wearing man, "don't just keep us in suspense, your free to speak,"

Daku rolled his shoulders, "I am not the true leader of Wave country,"

"This must be some kind of joke; if you're not the leader of this country then why do all the people refer to you as 'Leader-sama'?" Samsato snorted,

"This is difficult to explain but I am the Right hand man of the true leader of Wave. He was the one that commanded me to liberate and take over this country. He is currently dealing with some things in his home village but I was trusted to lead until he is ready to arrive. He was the one to plan everything out and the one who drew the specialized seals I am sure you saw during your stay. I am his enforcer and his protector."

"Let's say we believe you…who is this 'true leader' you speak about?" Kitsuen said stone faced, dead serious and ready if all hell broke loose,

"His name is Uzumaki Naruto and he is on his way here as we speak, he has a…problem with movement but I assure you he is not one to be taken lightly," There was a knock on the door and it was opened, standing (or sitting) there was Uzumaki Naruto, he was being pushed by a Daku water clone even though he didn't need to, "welcome Naruto-sama,"

"Him? He's just a kid, he can't even walk," Yumi sniffed, she stiffened when Daku took off his black sunglasses and shivered when he glared at her,

"Stand down, Daku," Naruto said breezily and took control of his hovering wheelchair, Daku stood up from his seat, pushed it aside and Naruto positioned his chair by the table, "pardon my intrusion honourable village leaders," the pale boy wore baggy pants, grey shirt and black flak jacket, he coughed quietly into his hand and continued, "those were the exact words a Konoha ninja 'said' to me before he…disappeared," Daku stood protectively behind him, like all the other village leaders guards.

"Was that a threat?" the woman stood up and glared down at him and Naruto had to raise his hand for his dark half to calm down,

"I assure you it was not a threat; I was only reminding you of a core lesson being taught to all ninjas before and after they are out of the academy: Never underestimate the unknown." The woman sat down and crossed her arms, "I wasn't meant to reveal my identity for a while but I wanted to personally make sure Waterfall agreed to our complete alliance, now I'm happy I came; my village or country is about to be allied to four more villages. The potential benefit my village, Wave, and all of yours would benefit from the alliance is too great. It was an act of confidence, like my servant has said, and I trust you all to think logically before you throw away this once in a life time opportunity,"

"He sure doesn't talk like a child," the hidden Waterfall leader said to himself, "could you please explain how you orchestrated the liberation and control of this village, Naruto…-dono,"

"I have no reason to hide that information…" he then proceeded to tell the village leaders his breakthroughs in seal work and how he extracted part of his dark half instead of the Kyuubi. How he trained Daku till he was able to fight two A rank jounin ninjas for a while. He further proved his prowess in fuinjutsu by standing up and walking around the room, "walking for too long takes a toll on me, that's why I prefer using my wheelchair,"

"Simply amazing," Tu whispered, "and your wheelchair is without wheels because it is being fully powered by seals?"

"Yes, it was one of my most recent work, I would gladly share what I can with you all if you so desire, but only if we come to an agreement concerning the alliance,"

Shibuki looked at the other leaders then back to Naruto, "I think we can proceed with the alliance. Before we begin, tell me how you were able to get here without informing Konoha; surely they would ensure 24 hour security to their crippled jinchuriki,"

"I timed the transfer of minders perfectly and swapped with a Daku clone. I then had to walk out of the gates till I was a few miles from Wave, and then another Daku clone escorted me here. I assure you that the clone is a very good at imitating me. Now with all that aside, let us outline the alliance," he picked up the brush and the alliance talks began.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

'Naruto' was not amused.

Of all the days the Sandaime could use to remember about him he chose the day of the chunin exams, and the day the village leaders came.

When the seals the real Naruto had placed around his apartment had informed him that the Sandaime Hokage was about to knock on the door he had hastily swapped his hover wheelchair with one with wheels. It was rickety and old, to further emphasize how much he had been abandoned. He didn't even bother smiling at the man and had declined going out for ramen when it was proposed.

Quite frankly he didn't have any part of him to care what the old man felt, it was exactly how the real Naruto would act. According to what the man was saying the exams were still on the second stage, a survival exam that tested the candidates' ability to adapt in the forest of death.

"Why don't you show me what you can do with you seals Naruto-kun," the Kage said, looking over the boys shoulder at the thick tome he was reading, it was an old scroll on growing vegetation that Naruto had read numerous times for the sole purpose of restoring Waves eco system,

"I'm not in the mood," 'Naruto' said quietly, his eyes roved over the tome slowly. He was seated beside his window, where the mid-morning sun could wash over him pleasantly, "now can you tell me the real reason you're here,"

Hiruzen frowned, "I'm here to visit my favourite knucklehead," he made an effort to smile but it came off as a wince, he even tried to ruffle Naruto's hair but the boy didn't react in any way, making the man awkwardly drop his hand,

The boy didn't even remove his eyes from his reading material, "you haven't visited me in seven years. What changed?"

"I was busy,"

The blonde boy snorted, "You were coincidentally not busy when I was kicked out of the orphanage,"

"I was passing by; I wasn't busy then,"

"I've read of ninjas that use clones to deliver messages; if you were too busy to come and see me why didn't you send a clone, I wouldn't have known the difference," the old man didn't have any response to that, the silence that came weighed heavily on the man's conscience, "I'm fine by myself; some helpful ANBU ninjas have been helping me to buy clothes and food, they even helped me fix my leaking roof,"

"I…see…" Hiruzen tried to scramble for anything, anything he could do to gain the boys trust again, "let's go and buy that toy you've always wanted,"

"I'm over it,"

"Let's go and replace your wheelchair,"

"I don't exactly _go_ anywhere,"

"…lets go and buy you some new…clothes?"

"Like I said before, I don't exactly go anywhere," was 'Naruto's' sharp and cool response, he traced his fingers on a line and hummed, "why are you here again?"

This time the old Hokage didn't have anything to say, his shoulders slumped in defeat as he made his way to the door, "I just came to visit." No. The real reason he was here was that due to the influx of foreigners in the village he had personally come to ensure Naruto's safety, if other villagers had ever gotten wind that he was a jinchuriki, a crippled jinchuriki or a crippled Uzumaki-Namikaze jinchuriki. Visiting Naruto leisurely was more of a secondary reason. He opened the door and was about to step out but he stopped and turned back to the inattentive boy, "Let's go and watch the preliminary round of the exams; I still have an hour before I have to be there," he didn't give the boy a chance to respond; he walked over and pushed the wheelchair out of the apartment, frowning when the door locked by itself, "are you sure you don't want to show me what you can do with seals?"

'Naruto' wasn't even paying too much attention to where they were heading to; he was still engrossed in the tome about vegetation, "I'm still not in the mood," the Sandaime pushed the wheelchair into a shop and bought a brand new wheelchair, Naruto stood up and 'limped' to the new wheelchair without looking up from his tome.

"What do you say…?"

"Thank you," the boy said, tracing another sentence in the tome and humming approvingly, "where are we going again?"

"To the chunin exams," the Hokage briskly answered as he wheeled 'Naruto' out of the shop and straight to an access route to the chunin exams arena that didn't pass through the forest of death. He wasn't sure what to think about this Naruto, the Naruto that looked like he hadn't eaten or slept in a week or two, the Naruto that kept asking what was happening or where he was going, the Naruto that seemed too detached from reality to care about what happened to him. This wasn't the Naruto he had known 7 years ago, and he blamed himself for that; he had completely neglected the boys wellbeing even passed the time when Naruto had come to his office himself, not to ask for money but to be admitted into the ninja academy. He had been so lost in his musings that he didn't know when he had gotten to the exams arena.

The chunin hopeful were already bustling around in the room he was meant to address them, he assigned one of his ANBU to look over the jinchuriki before he stepped forward and delivered his congratulatory speech to all that had survived the second test, he handed the stage to the proctor of the exams, Gekko Hayate, and walked back to 'Naruto'…who was _infuriatingly_ still reading. He sighed and rolled the boy to the exclusive section of the spectators' box, where only those who were members of each respective Kage's family could watch the exams. Since three of the Kazekage's children were attending the exams and the Waterfall leader was busy elsewhere, he was the only person in the spacious booth.

'Naruto' for the first time in a long time turned to the Kage and furrowed his eyebrows, "why the special treatment, Hokage-sama?"

Hiruzen winced from the formality but summoned up a pained smile, "you are special, Naruto-kun,"

The blonde child shook his head and turned back to his tome, "is it because of the Kyuubi?" he didn't need to look at the old man to know he was wide eyed, "I was bound to find out,"

"Who told you?" the Sandaime's voice was steely and harsh,

"No one needed to tell me, I was given bad food and heard his voice; I thought it was a hallucination,"

"You have to understand Naruto…I did this for your own good," this time the man's voice was soft and friendly, "I didn't his to protect you,"

'Naruto' rolled his eyes, "'lot of good that did; have you _seen_ me? You can't deny the fact you haven't seen my scars,"

"I-I didn't know it would be that bad,"

"Well now you do. So what other grand secret about me do you know that was 'for my own good'?" the man's silence was proof enough that he was hiding something, he rolled through all his boss ever wanted to know and stopped at the one seemingly random one, "my parents?" the silence was palpable,

"It was-"

"For my own good," 'Naruto' finished, "yes, yes I know that, like I was a Bijuu container and keeping that fact away from me was for my own good. Please tell me something I don't know," 'Naruto's' bosses master didn't have any respect for the Sandaime and so does he.

"Your mother was a seal master from Uzishio,"

"I know that one or both of my parents were seal masters; I can't have a prestigious fuinjutsu and kenjutsu specialist clan-albeit an extinct clan-as a surname and not be connected to them _somehow_. Next,"

"Your father was a very important man,"

"I couldn't have been randomly picked from the orphanage to house the Kyuubi, Hokage-sama; from the way the history book described Yondaime-sama he was an honourable man that couldn't do to others what he wouldn't do to himself. Factor in the fact I look too much like the Yondaime Hokage…well…I looked like the Yondaime a while ago, now I look like his malnourished younger brother,"

"Naruto, you mustn't say those sort of things out loud; the walls have ears,"

"Which proves that I'm somehow related to the Yondaime Hokage, thank you Sandaime-sama," the old Hokage wisely chose to his mouth closed or the child would worm more S rank secrets out of it,

"I'll come back after the exams to take you back home,"

"I'll be waiting till you do," 'Naruto' murmured and Hiruzen walked to the Kage's booth to observe the chunin exams, leaving 'Naruto' to muse over the little bit of information he had learnt. _'Apparently Naruto-sama's suspicions have been confirmed; he is related to two great seal masters. The Yondaime is related to him; he looked like the man when he was younger. I have to tell Naruto-sama,'_ he was passively paying attention to the fights going on below him in the arena.

Meanwhile, deep in a hidden section of the village hidden in leaves, a bandaged up, one eyed old man stoically looked at the squad of ROOT ANBU assembled before him, "you all know your mission, now go," the faceless ninjas swooped out of the hidden base and Danzo went back to reading the status report concerning infiltrating Wave country.

 **Authors note**

 **I wrote this a while ago but I didn't have any time or motivation to post it. What'cha think? Good? Bad? Meh? I want to know so…Review!**

 **B.j.**


	5. Chapter 5

CHAPTER 5

Daku shadow clone 'Naruto' was currently at 'Naruto-sama's' special place. He had an average sized sketch book in his hand and a pencil in the other one; he was carefully drawing a butterfly flittering in the wind, with tree leaves floating around it. He altered the picture somewhat by making the old trees bend ever so slightly towards the butterfly like they were watching the tiny insect move.

Drawing was one of the few hobbies the real Naruto had picked up to pass the time whenever he wasn't focused on his seal work or on Wave country. Imaginative drawing was also what he did.

The clone perfectly imitated the real Naruto by keeping his back straight and his face blank, he breathed in slowly so as not to guide his hand astray and breathed out lowly as well. The butterfly he had been drawing had long gone; he was using his memory to draw it. There were Daku water clones hiding around the clearing, keeping vigilant watch over him and his surroundings. The real Naruto had said that he would be back in a week or so and that would mean he would have to be regularly replaced as 'Naruto' throughout so he didn't randomly poof away if, by some crazy chance, a stray weapon hit him.

The chunin exams he had been forced to attend the two days ago was fairly uneventful and he made sure to tell the Hokage that, with the only semi-exciting thing that happened was when the Kazekage's son almost killing a leaf shinobi (Lee), Sai showing ninjutsu and taijutsu prowess no genin his age was meant to have and Hinata and Neji's fight, if you want to call it that. 'Naruto' would call it a glorified execution that didn't go through. When he noticed that Neji's strikes were getting more and more fatal and Hinata was getting more and more weaker he was forced to remember that the pale eyed, weak hearted girl was an integral part of Naruto's plans, albeit a still unknown aspect of the plan, 'Naruto' was forced to intervene.

The minor fact that she kept glancing at him made him curious though.

Hinata was on her knees, looking up at Neji pitifully and raised no defence for his killing strike until…

A silver rope shot down from 'Naruto's' spectators box and wrapped tightly around Neji's neck. He had unsealed the rope from a scroll in his pocket. The rope was one of the real Naruto's best works; he had to have the real Daku steal eye magnifiers glass and when he did he used it to look at the rope and draw tiny custom made seals on each thread of rope. The paint brush was too large and using only a hair from the brush would hinder his speed, so he had to resort to something he hadn't practiced often. He used his chakra. Chakra exercises were also emphasised in the fuinjutsu scroll he had been given and he had practiced leaf spinning and senbon balancing-with his fingers. He had mastered the latter exercise but not the former; he had to put conscious effort for the leaves to spin, irrespective of the number.

He went further and performed exercises for each element, with only water and air coming to him easier than the rest so he correctly deduced he had those affinities.

He was fairly ok with channelling and separating his chakra. So he used his _water_ affinity chakra to draw custom seals on each thread of rope, intertwining it again and thus his 'Snake rope' was born. Though he had to add in durability seals so it wouldn't snap it was still a work of genius. The real snake rope was with the real Naruto; the one 'Naruto' had was the first prototype. It could only stretch as much as the chakra he added in and he wanted to save his chakra for other things.

He flicked his wrist and dragged the Hyuuga back, rolling his eyes when the boy tried striking the ropes repeatedly. The proctor looked up at him with furrowed eyes and called the match in Neji's favour, disqualifying Hinata. The blonde boy shrugged and recalled his silver weapon, the rope uncoiling slowly from around Neji's throat, releasing the purple faced boy. The other jounin that had leaped down to save the girl were perplexed how a child that couldn't walk was able to save the Hyuuga heiress faster than them.

Hinata looked up at him with what he could call gratitude and a little bit of admiration, and Neji…

Neji was stoically glaring at him, before he walked out of the arena.

Presently he was trying to make the drawing as realistic as possible, adding shadows, stray beams of light, intricate designs that would seldom be noticed and even slight after images left by the butterfly's wings. He was…happy with what he got,

"Hey there Gaki!"

'Naruto' stifled a groan when a pencil stroke entered a tree; he brought out an eraser and carefully rubbed out the mistake, making sure to acknowledge the person that had disturbed him without turning around, "hello,"

"Now is that a way to speak to me?" the man obviously expected him to snap his head in his direction and maybe grovel at his feet, but 'Naruto' was above doing that, "the man that make ladies swoon and men jealous. The great and Gallant, Jiraiya!"

"I speak to everyone this way; you are no different," he was still gently rubbing out the 'evil' line that was disrupting his picture of peace, "can you tell me what you want, Jiraiya-sama?" he could practically feel the man's shoulders slump,

"Old man Hokage told me you're a real whiz with seals,"

"I try my best, why do you ask?"

"Isn't it obvious? I, the Gallant Jiraiya, the strongest of the Three Legendary Sannin, the toad summoner, the author of the bestselling book in all of the elemental nations, is here to give you some tips and maybe…if you impress me enough…I'll take you on as my apprentice!" he didn't get the response he wanted; 'Naruto' was still busy cleaning off the line and trying to make as little mistake as possible, "I can even add the toad summoning contract…"

"I am fine with where I am in fuinjutsu, but thank you for coming Jiraiya-sama,"

"Awww c'mon Gaki! I'm here to help you!" he walked to the boy's front and crossed his arms,

"And I have acknowledged that, but I also said I am fine with where I am," he didn't drop the sketch pad to look at the man, he was tracing over where he had rubbed out,

"Oh yeah? What level are you on now?"

"Level nine-"

"What? I'm on level eight and a half! How did you get so far up?"

"Years of study and nothing else but study,"

"But I have been studying, all my life!"

"No, the history books say you've been studying fuinjutsu since you graduated the academy and factor in that you have the most… _unsavoury_ of hobbies, quite frankly you haven't done enough with your seal work,"

"Hey! I'll have you know my stories explain the intricacies of the female body; you should read it sometime," opting to defend his novel series,

"I tried reading it," the man perked up, "and I was sorely disappointed, 98% of the book was about sex, and I am not interested in that presently. But I would have to give it to you; it was very graphic,"

"That's good enough for me. Can you tell me why two Hyuuga are stalking you?" the child didn't even flinch, which Jiraiya summarised because he already knew,

"I saved one and I almost strangled one during the exams," Naruto hummed, "you can go back to the Hokage and tell him you weren't successful, Jiraiya-sama,"

The toad sage fully covered his surprise that he knew the old Hokage had sent him, though he did sigh sadly and add, "Are you sure you don't want a toad summoning?"

"I wouldn't have need for it; I can't walk well to fight and I don't have anyone close enough to me to send messages to. It would be totally useless," the man nodded and left, his pride reduced somewhat that the child he didn't want to raise had already surpassed him. When Minato and Kushina had named him Naruto's godfather he didn't think the two would die the next day. He didn't see when 'Naruto' nodding to his back or a black blur follow after him.

'Naruto' then flicked his pencil holding hand to where the two Hyuuga were hiding and two blurs dropped behind them and deposited them a few feet in front of 'Naruto' before they could use their byakugan to see who had ambushed them so quickly. Both Hyuuga were far enough away from each other so Naruto wasn't too afraid of separating a fight.

"I thought I remember telling you and by extension your team mates to never come back here, Hinata-san?" speaking of the shy Hyuuga, he had been communicating with his bosses boss and they now had a purpose for the girl. The real Naruto wasn't necessarily _using_ her though, what he had in mind would benefit both Hinata and him, and by extension the rest of the new minor village/country alliance.

"I-I know, Naruto-kun, I j-just came to say thank you for saving me," she bowed and 'Naruto' nodded, actually looking up from his drawing,

"It was no problem," he looked at Neji, who was unsurprisingly scowling at him, "now, why are you here, Neji-san?"

"I came to see who you were and I see that your just a crippled waif that is fated to forever stay in that chair," Hinata gasped at his insult, fully expecting 'Naruto' to retaliate but was surprised when 'Naruto' just nodded and stood up,

"I can stand, and walk fairly well," he sat back in his chair, "that's defying your so called 'fate'" he leaned back, "I was able to create something to help me walk, but not for too long though."

Neji crossed his arms, "it doesn't change anything, you are still weak," now there were two ways to go about answering that obvious taunt; he could ignore it and wave him away or he could lash out with the arsenal of seals at his disposal. He chose the invisible third option: taunt right back,

"If I was weak how did I stop you from killing her yesterday?"

"I wasn't ready, next time she wouldn't be so fortunate,"

"I don't think so, your unfounded animosity against a girl that literally couldn't hurt a fly is illogical, Neji-san, go back home and think about your life,"

Neji grit his teeth and clenched his fist, "you have no right to say that,"

"and you have no right to pick on a defenceless girl, unless you _'get off'_ that sort of thing," 'Naruto' waved his hand flippantly and sniffed quietly, "if you do then I advise you to go for therapy; it isn't healthy," he smirked minutely at Neji, knowing that the boy was just a few more insults away from pouncing on him,

"I have a valid reason for targeting Hinata, wheelchair boy," the Hyuuga boy growled out before he smirked proudly,

"Oh very inventive, Neji, smart play on my minor disability," 'Naruto' said coolly, "my question to you, Neji, is why are you are still here? Or is it that you also _'get off'_ on _'making fun'_ of disabled boys too?" Hinata stifled her laugh in her sleeve, a small giggle escaped her mouth and she bit the cloth of her sleeve, 'Naruto' briefly looked at her blankly then back at his object of his verbal attacks.

The poor Hyuuga was red faced with steam coming out of his ears, "I do not get off anything!"

"Uh huh sure you don't," 'Naruto' said with a roll of his eyes and another flippant hand gesture, "you should go and train, I heard you were going to fight the Uchiha in the second round,"

"that is true, I do not need to waste any more of my time conversing with…uncouth riff raff like you and _this_ … _weak_ excuse of a Hyuuga, good day," he raised his nose into the air and sauntered away from the two, "and if you ever disrupt any of my fights again, I will end you,"

"Whatever," the boy scowled briefly before he cleaned up his expression and walked off, "now Hinata-san, why are you here again?"

Now under the figurative magnifying glass of the object of her affections Hinata's face heated up, "I-I-I-"

"Spit it out girl,"

"I-I-I came to say thank you for-for-for," she stuttered out something incoherent and raised her voice, "and to ap-apologize for-for my team mate; his-his attitude w-was uncalled f-for,"

"Eh, it was nothing," 'Naruto' chose to fill in the blanks of what she was saying. She then nervously shuffled in front of him, "yes?"

"A-ano… how were you able to do that…rope thing…?"

The clone pursed his lips and contemplated lying to her and telling her to get lost, but then discarded it; if a Sannin knows he could do seals as well as the Hokage and more than half of the ANBU force then why couldn't he tell her? "Fuinjutsu," she frowned in thought, slightly confused, "it's mostly about using kanji to do things ninjutsu or any other kind of jutsu can't,"

She nodded, "is that how you can walk or how you beat Kiba?"

'Naruto' nodded. There was a long pause afterwards with Hinata biting the corner of her lips nervously, 'Naruto' quietly groaned in frustration, "yes?"

"Is that how you're so strong?" the clone raised an eyebrow, "I-I-I mean you're so… confident and-and cool and you're not scared of anything…"

"You have only known me for about a month Hinata-san,"

Her shoulders slumped, "I know,"

He decided to humour her a bit, "fuinjutsu was my way of coping with loneliness and depression, and I got so deep into it that I found it truly fascinating. You can say my devotion to seals and my ability to use them makes me strong,"

' _So… to be strong I need to find something to be devoted to…'_ she stepped back and bowed, "thank you, Naruto-san,"

"For what?"

"For your words," she turned to go but Naruto stopped her,

"Hinata-san?"

She swivelled around sharply, "yes!" a bit too loudly,

"Do you really want to be strong?" she nodded slowly, the clone then unsealed a wooden chair and motioned for her to sit on it, "let me help you then…"

Besides…Konoha could always use a Hyuuga Kage…as well as the new minor village/country alliance…

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

In Wave country, inside the Wave leaders office, all the minor village leaders were discussing on how to strengthen their villages. They had talked about supplying money, resources and workers to Hidden Fang to construct a train station linking the village to Hidden Marsh and Hidden Chill, which was the furthest village. Hidden Waterfall was closest to Wave and Hidden Smoke and Smoke was closest to Fang, which meant that if the train was fully constructed then communication and transportation of people and resources would be much easier.

Naruto had already brought forward three fully capable engineers in the village to aid in the construction of the tracks and the trains as well as adding a highly powered Daku clone to help with lifting heavy items as well as lending his experience in metal and wood work. Kitsuen had given in his best Smoke release users to melt the iron as well as some of his best black smiths. Shibuki, Tu and Yumi had offered in money and supplies.

Just as they were about to begin discussions on how to accelerate the ninja training in Wave the doors to the office were thrown open and a hyperventilating demon brother was seen.

"What is the meaning of this!?" Samsato yelled in outrage,

"Humble apologies honourable village leaders but a group of unknown ninja have just attempted to infiltrate the walls, the seals worked and they were repelled," how the seals protecting Wave worked was that every citizens blood was keyed in, which meant that all new born and dead people would have to registered in periodically. To all visitors temporary tattoos were stamped on their wrists, lasting only as long as they were to stay. Add in all the gates and gatekeepers to administer visitors' tattoos (painless) and Wave was very well protected against infiltration. What remained was to find a way to make the seals absorb enemy chakra and use it against them, like a virus. The seals create an active lightening force field and repulses those without these requirements depending on how much the infiltrator used his chakra, so he Wave wouldn't be responsible for the death of a civilian who had _somehow_ got his tattoo rubbed out or new born child that had not been registered.

Naruto planned on immersing himself on how to make the seals differentiate between civilian and shinobi, giving very harsh punishment to attacking shinobi and only pushing the civilians back.

"Have they been captured?" Naruto asked calmly, he propped his head up with his right hand and was drumming his fingers on his wheel chair arm with his left, "well?"

The lone demon brother used a split second to look at Daku, who was standing guard behind the boy, then at the other village leaders' guards also behind them, in the same position. This boy must be the 'Great Master' that Daku had been talking about…

"They are retreating to wherever they had come from; Haku is currently giving chase,"

"What about Zabuzza?" Naruto asked, fully updated on the happenings in Wave and who exactly was under his employ. The other village leaders as well as their guards watched the interaction with mild interest.

"He is out on a mission with my brother; they are not due to return till tomorrow,"

The blonde boy rubbed his chin in thought before he said, "even though Haku is a high chunin and an expert hunter ninja I still need those ninjas to be brought in, they have made me curious. Daku, I want you to personally go and assist Haku, bring all the ninjas back alive-"

"If you don't mind me interrupting, Naruto-dono," Kitsuen said, cutting off the 12 year old leader of Wave country, Naruto paused and nodded for the large man to continue, "I propose we each send a bodyguard after your intruders. Since we are now allied, a breach in your security becomes a breach in _our_ security,"

"That's right," Yumi added, "I also believe it will foster a feeling of camaraderie if our ninjas learn to work with each other,"

"All in favour?" Naruto said and all the leaders raised their hands, "then it's agreed. Go after them and bring them back alive," a guard behind each village leader, Daku included, obeyed the command and marched out of the office.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Haku, an ice release user, crouched under a thrown shuriken expertly and threw three ice senbon at the attacker. The plain masked person threw a kunai and intercepted the ice senbon impressively. The ninja turned around and kept pelting into the forest with his team not too far in front of him. The ice user glared at the intruder behind his mask and was about to rocket after the ninja until he turned around sharply and held an ice senbon to the neck of a rotund gas mask wearing ninja. The ninja wore predominantly grey and black clothing; he had on a large black jounin flak jacket and plain grey under shirt and pants. He had a black dagger in a holster at his heel, a bit above his grey ninja sandals. The person raised his hand in a sign that he was on Haku's side but he ice user didn't drop his guard.

"Stand down Haku,"

"Daku-sama?" the ice user released the senbon and allowed it to melt, shuffling back when Daku and four more curiously dressed ninja ran from out of the forest, "I do not mean to be rude but what are they doing here?" they were definitely the leaders body guards.

The ninja from Hidden Fang, a female, spoke before the dark shadow could, "our leaders opted for us to join the hunt," she had waist length frizzy brown hair and tanned skin with sharp facial features. Small canines stuck out of the side of her mouth. She wore a deep red flak jacket with white fang designs on its shoulders and sides. She had on an ankle length ninja pants and a long curved sword holstered at her side. She wore only a vest under her flak jacket, exposing her lean muscles and three fang tattoos on her left shoulder.

"We best hurry, they are getting away," was the cool suggestion of the Hidden Chill bodyguard. He had short shocking white hair, white eyebrows and chilly blue eyes that glared in the general direction of where the intruders had run to. His voice sounded eerily like he was talking through a tube. His flak jacket was chilly blue, like his eyes and he wore a plain white trench coat that barely reached the ground. He had on stark black ninja pants with curious looking shuriken holstered on both sides of his hip.

Daku mutely pointed at the Fang konouchi to track the intruders and with a sharp howl the woman leaped into the forest, the other ninjas following suit. Back in Wave country the Fang wolf companions howled in response to the call. Naruto looked at Samsato curiously, still in the meeting room discussing matters and making agreements. The man gave him a sharp smirk and said, "The hunt begins,"

The fang ninja sniffed the air and flew through the trees, not even touching the ground and the other ninjas sped behind her tirelessly, "how close are we Billy-san?" the Hidden Marsh konouchi asked from almost beside the Fang konouchi called Billy. She had short black hair that lay down neatly on her head with coal black eyes. She had a slim build, further accentuated by the green and black battle kimono she had on under a dark green jounin flak jacket. She had on short, tight pants under her kimono that could barely be seen from the lengthwise slit to on her right leg.

"Here," Billy said lowly and burst through some trees, tackling a featureless shinobi and smashing him against a tree. She then bashed her head against the intruders mask and watched with grim satisfaction as the ninja passed out.

Daku took out his own opponent almost as easily, taking his time to watch how his opponent fought and realizing it was similar to the Strong Fist taijutsu style. He slapped away two blows and gave his opponent a rising knee to the chin, shattering the mask. As his opponent was airborne he shot his arm out and plucked a shuriken from the air, its target him, and threw it back at the attacker, nailing the ninja's right leg. He thrust his hand forward again and pulled his own opponent out of the air, smashing him into the ground and knocking him out with a finger poke to the neck.

The Hidden Chill shinobi went through a short chain of hand seals, _"Water release: Water drill"_ he droned out the common jutsu but made optimum use of it by driving his opponent to the Hidden Smoke shinobi,

" _Smoke release: Smoke blanket,"_ the gas mask the ninja wore began pouring out thick, inky smoke onto the helpless intruder. The featureless ninja began hacking into his hand, blood spurting out of his mouth, nose and ears. He slumped onto the ground a few seconds later by a swift neck chop courtesy of the Smoke release user. He accepted a fist bump by his tag team partner, the Chill shinobi. The Chill shinobi bent down and tied up their captive while the Smoke stood and watched the other bodyguards handle their opponents.

The Waterfall shinobi was swiftly dodging sword strikes from his opponent, not having a sword of his own to counter, and defying all expectations that one of his large body mass could move so nimbly. He quickly analysed the mysterious ninjas fighting style and applauded the lack of holes he saw in his offense. Though he did note that the person was a chunin, with the way he couldn't seem to increase his sword speed. He side stepped another sword stroke and swung his right fist at the arm, snapping the elbow and making the stranger drop his sword. The person, despite having a broken arm, didn't let up with his attacks, throwing blow after blow at the man, "your determination is admirable, shinobi-san," he leaned back from a wide kick and snap kicked the leg that stayed on the ground, shattering the ankle. The victim swayed unsteadily on his lone leg and gurgled in pain when the Waterfall ninja grabbed his throat and ripped his mask off. The man, seeing the maniacal look in his eyes, thrust his hand into his mouth and grabbed his tongue.

Billy wolf whistled, "kinky!"

The Waterfall shinobi rolled his eyes, "he has a suicide seal on his tongue, he was trying to activate it," Haku, not having an opponent, threw a senbon to the mysterious ninjas neck and the ninja slumped into blissful unconsciousness.

Meanwhile the Marsh konouchi swept her opponents feet from under her and axe kicked her chest into the ground, forming a small crater, "oops, it seems I overdid it…" he bent down and felt the ninjas pulse, sighing in relief when he felt a faint beat, "relax, she's alive!"

"Are you telling that to us or to yourself," was the snarky response from the Chill shinobi,

"Whatever," she tied up her incapitated opponent and lifted her onto her shoulders, the other body guards doing so as well,

"Let's head on back to Wave," Daku said and jumped into the treeline,

"Did anyone else see his fight?" the rotund Smoke shinobi asked, "I certainly didn't,"

"Daku-sama is very fast and very brutal, he knocked out his opponent and injured the one you were against Smoke shinobi-san," the ninjas were bursting through the forest back home,

Billy grunted, "Sounds like a challenge,"

"He beat an A rank missing ninja and held his own again Kakashi of the Sharingan and Asuma Sarutobi,"

The Chill shinobi eyes widened, breaking his cool expression, "he beat Asuma Sarutobi _and_ Hatake Kakashi?" his comrades were equally as shocked, even the brazenly strong Billy, "how? They're both A rank shinobi!" Daku seemed to be out of ear shot, but instead he ignored them and kept tree jumping,

"He fought them to a standstill, retreating only because of chakra exhaustion, I saw everything,"

The group silently kept tree hopping, looking at the quiet Wave leaders bodyguard with a little more respect, fighting to a standstill against two young legendary A rank shinobi was not something one heard every day. Add in the fact that both A rank shinobi had special abilities and jutsu in their arsenal; Kakashi had his sharingan and Asuma had his trench knives and his almost unmatched wind jutsu. It would take a terrible amount of shinobi experience and knowledge to be able to accomplish that.

Something Naruto's dark shadow had…and something that was still growing…maturing…

"Curious," the Marsh konouchi said to herself.

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Smoke release: Smoke blanket: this is an A rank technique that makes use of both a genjutsu, to make the victim believe he cannot breathe, and ninjutsu, to create a blanket of thick black smoke from the user, harmless smoke if not accompanied with this genjutsu. This technique is only predominant to Smoke release users and people who can perfectly combine fire, water and air affinities. The jutsu cannot kill, but it is still extremely lethal with its results.**_

 **Now y'all see why Hinata is even relevant in this story. Naruto wants her to become Hokage. In my opinion, Hinata is like wet, unmoulded clay, with the right hands and expertise she'll grow into something very big. It's not exactly too late to change her into something revered; I think this is the perfect time to do so (after losing to her cousin in the chunin exams).**

 **I don't like Jiraiya much, so his association with Naruto would not be all that positive. Not that I'll out rightly bash him, or maim his name and stuff. I acknowledge that Jiraiya is a legendary shinobi with almost unreachable skill but I also cannot get past the fact that he didn't look after his own god son; giving himself the excuse that he couldn't handle children. That's a poor excuse if you ask me…**

 **What do you all think about Billy? The Hidden Fang konouchi, she may or may not be over powered with how quickly and easily she knocked out her opponent. Note! She is not to be messed with. The Hidden Chill shinobi is more eager of the body guards to work with others, mirroring how Yumi is always cold and emotionless but still eager to prove herself and show she is also the mature one in the group.**

 **I honestly don't plan for the 'New Minor Village/Country Alliance' (though it won't be too new after a few chapters) to break up any time soon, if at all. Stay tuned and watch how these six minor villages rise to something only the major shinobi villages could compete against.**

 **Daku…like I said in the first chapter is the darker, more merciless, half of Naruto that has no inhibitions'** _ **AT ALL**_ **. I'm getting goose bumps just thinking of how strong he's going to be with Kyuubi's chakra… if you truly want to see this, keep reading.**

 **Things are getting good. Real good….**

 **See you all on the flip side.**

 **Please review.**

 **Foy.**


	6. Chapter 6

**Thank you all for your awesome reviews! They've really made my day; I'd like to see more if you all don't mind.**

 **Shout out to VtrCst for your great review, it's nice to know I'm writing something original. :D**

 **Some major fuinjutsu theory in this chapter. Just a little warning, it may interest you to read it. :D**

CHAPTER 6

Hard, sharp thunks could be heard in Naruto's special clearing near where team 8 usually trained, a day later.

A cool voice rang out over the noise, "one," thunk, "two," thunk, "three," thunk, "four," thwack! "Again. One," the thumping noises started a fresh. If one was to spy on the cause it would greatly surprise anyone watching. The reason was because it was Hinata that was causing the loud noise. She was currently glaring bashfully at a training dummy, seal augmented not to break easily, her face red hot, and throwing jyuuken strikes at four major tenketsu areas. This was meant to be a Hyuuga secret but Hinata surmised that a crippled boy could not do anything with the knowledge. She hoped.

She bent down into a sloppy stance and thrust her hands out, index and middle finger leading, to the dummy's chest, then behind it to its kidney, then to its liver and finally a sharp poke to its neck. It had been a day after talking with 'Naruto' on how to get strong and 'Naruto' was seriously hoping his boss's boss wasn't wrong to place so much belief in the girl. Her stances were sloppy, her strikes were weak, she couldn't keep a straight face, the list goes on…

The clone didn't want to train the young girl like the real Naruto had trained Daku; she would die of exhaustion, but he was seriously contemplating it. He gave up and chose to break his stoic look with a sharp frown, "tell me Hinata, why are we here if you clearly aren't ready to make yourself better," team 8 was currently on a break until after the exams, meeting only for a three hour work out and light spar before dismissing.

"I do want to make myself better," she stood up straight and blushed lightly when she looked at the blonde clone,

"See what I mean, you cannot set your mind on one single activity. I am not impressed," those words sounded like funeral gongs in Hinata's ears, her eyes widened and she looked at the clone, restraining from gasping too loudly, "you have a lot of potential but you are too soft-"

"I can be hard…"

"Are you telling me that or are you reassuring yourself? It makes me wonder what you have been doing with your team since you joined, flexibility exercises can only take you so far. You need to toughen your strikes, you need to have a clear mind, you need to increase your chakra levels, you need proper nutrition, you need to up your speed, you need to up your strength, you need to up your confidence, you need a proper training schedule, you need to be focused-"

"I am focused!" the girl yelled, clenching her fist in anger at all the problems the boy had outlined, just after spending half a day showing him what she got. The blonde clone had exposed most of everything she had wrong with her life,

Her outburst greatly surprised the blonde clone; 'he' leaned back fractionally and paused mid-speech. Though he stood on his ground that she needed to be disillusioned as much as possible. The real Naruto believed in cold hard truth. The girls face was still red but not out of embarrassment. The clearing was quiet for a minute, the only sound being the chirping of birds in the distance and Hinata's semi-enraged deep breathes, "… listen," 'Naruto' sat up straight and cleaned all expression off his face, "I do not like wasting my time," the girl closed her eyes tightly and grit her teeth, "I am going to give you one more chance to impress me with your skill, the one you have so I know where to start. Are you ready?" she opened her eyes wide but still nodded frantically, "good. Now let's start all over again." She swivelled around and took the basic stance of the gentle fist, glaring at the training dummy without her byakugan activated. Her face was _still_ red but this was because she was still trying to get her heart under control. "I'm not going to count you in, begin when you're ready,"

"Hai," she responded and slowed her heart rate down, reducing the dusting of red on her cheek to something barely visible. She thrust her right hand forward at the dummy's chest, burying her fingers in its chest; the she twirled around, her hand still in its chest, and jammed her fingers at where the kidneys were roughly located in an average human's body. She released the chest jab and pelted where the liver was and at the same time released the kidney strike to bury her chakra laced fingers halfway through the dummy's throat.

Hinata stood back to marvel at what she had done, gulping in ragged breathes through her grit teeth. The training dummy started slumping slowly, simulating the fact that it had been killed with her strikes.

' _I did that?!'_

She was brought out of her thoughts when she heard slow clapping from beside her, "very good Hinata, much better than your first attempt and I'll say I am very impressed by your determination," the girl refrained from ducking her head in embarrassment from the clones praise, she had quickly learnt that this boy didn't like seeing weakness in any form. So she stood up straight, albeit madly blushing, and bowed slightly,

"Thank you Naruto-kun,"

"When I am teaching you, you call me sensei,"

"Naruto-sensei," she corrected herself,

'Naruto' nodded and made his chair hover around the clearing slowly, the girl made sure to keep her posture good and her eyes staring straight at the 'dead' dummy, "good, you're learning. We shall meet up here every day until the end of the exams, on that day if you impress me enough I shall continue with your training, am I understood,"

"Hai Naruto-sensei!"

"Now, let's work on your stamina first before we keep going," he hovered to her and, quick as a flash, tied her up with his snake rope, put weight seals on both her feet and hands, and released her. Something that happened so fast the girl was unsure it happened, "the seals I put on you are weight seals, with every pulse of chakra I send in from here," he tapped an arm on his wheel chair, her hands and feet felt slightly heavier, "the weight shall increase," he tapped it again and her arms felt like they were about to tear out of her sockets, "start jogging to and from your teams training ground to here until I say you should stop. We shall be doing this every day two hours before sunrise and immediately after your teams 'training' if you would call it that. Begin and remember, I have eyes everywhere,"

Hinata couldn't remember the last time she had carried so much weight at once, as she ran her legs shook from the strain and her hands, which she kept up to her sides, were seriously burning from strain.

Now 'Naruto' was very impressed. She was currently using the seal at level three, which meant she was lifting exactly 80 pounds, more than half her own body weight.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _That same day_

 _Wave country_

"You said there are suicide seals on their tongues?" the real Naruto asked the Waterfall shinobi that was behind Shibuki. The village leaders were currently walking down a subterranean passage under the Wave leader's tower to where the Root ninjas were being kept in a seal induced stasis. He was hovering at the front with Samsato walking briskly beside him with the other village leaders and their guards behind them. The passage could only fit three at a time.

"Hai, two of them have already activated it when they woke up ahead of schedule," that was why Daku had put them into stasis, so there won't be any more loss, now they had to work with three intruders. The village leaders all chose not to blame their body guards for the loss since it was very much unexpected that a ninja could force himself awake after a perfectly executed neck chop and senbon to the neck. Even still the guards had profusely apologized for failing, Daku included.

They then entered into a wide stone walled room that had three hospital style beds inside, the room was well lit, making sure there weren't too many shadows and the room was very cool, not painfully so though.

The boy hovered over to the side of the bed at the far left of the room, the village leaders following only to see what he was going to do. Naruto wore a pair of plastic gloves and looked at the Root ninja on the bed that was stripped down to only his shirt and pants. The ninja had a softly glowing blue kanji for 'deep sleep' plastered on his forehead, the ninja was taking low, slow breathes to show he was still very much alive. The blonde seal master stood up, Daku pulling his wheelchair back, and gently pried the intruding ninja's mouth open. He snapped his fingers and Daku came over and held the mouth open, Naruto pulled out the tongue and hummed in thought at what he saw.

Since the boy was the only resident seal master present he chose to speak to the leaders, not to keep them in the dark, "he has a very complex seal on his tongue," he used his pinkie finger to trace the seal, "no, correction, there are two seal complexes on his tongue,"

"Two? I thought it was only possible to have one," Tu, the leader of Hidden Marsh wondered aloud, the other leaders nodded to show that they too were wondering the same thing,

"I thought the same thing too when I was a level five seal master. The scroll I learned from at the time showed me that it was possible to put even up to a hundred seals together, as long as the seal master knows what he is doing." He bent down to look at the roof of the ninja's mouth, then under his tongue, finding nothing.

"I can believe that doing something like that has to have risks," Samsato said,

"Yes, the seal master has to combine kanji that are more compatible with the other, he has to be very careful with how he draws them or it would literally blow up in his face. The risks are always worth the rewards, believe me,"

"Are we to assume that you have used complex seals before?" Shibuki asked,

"numerous times; the seals that make my wheelchair move are complex, the seals that protect Wave are complex, and might I add very hard to crack, the seals tattooed on your wrists are extremely complex, the list goes on," The leaders watched as a kanji for 'find/detect' glowed on the palm, he roved it slowly over the unconscious ninjas body, "this seal on my hand is made up of four seals," there were two types of complex seals, the ones that were carefully stacked on each other and the ones that were tied end to end, like neat cursive hand writing but very much different. The seal on his palm was stacked on top of each other, melding together after he successfully channelled his chakra in to make his seal detection seal. Complex seals were not very easy to detect by people who haven't been exposed to the finer intricacies of fuinjutsu, or anyone below level five of mastery in fuinjutsu.

"What seal complexes are on this ninjas tongue, Naruto-dono," Yumi asked, engrossed by how interesting seals could be and how deep the ninja art could go, very much deeper than anything she had ever encountered. **(Note: a seal complex is a single seal, a complex seal is a seal made up of more than one seal)**

Naruto appreciated the questions; it showed that they now had a healthy respect for seals and were willing to learn what they could, he would gladly oblige them since fuinjutsu wasn't a secret art, "there are _three_ simple seals on his tongue, combined expertly to make _one_ complex seal. The first is the basic storage seal, tuned only to store fire chakra, and the basic suicide seal, or cyanide seal, a seal I have only seen once and it was in a scroll I learnt from, the last seal is a rare kind of seal called the secrecy, or loyalty, seal, it is like an oath never to speak about something. The seals combine to form the complex kanji for 'death by fire'" the boy had detected storage seals on the ninja's forearms and trap seals on the ninja's chest. He turned off the detection seal on his palm and rummaged through his baggy pants pockets, he then removed a thin sheet of paper and snapped his fingers, Daku gently dropping a brush on his masters awaiting hands and held out an ink pot for the boy to dip the brush in,

"What are you doing now, Naruto-dono?" Yumi asked, leaning in slightly to look at what the boy was drawing,

"I'm drawing a seal I created to tell me what exactly is in a storage seal and, if I'm lucky, tell me what booby traps are in that seal," he pointed to the exposed chest of the unconscious ninja, "stand back please," the leaders shuffled back two steps as the boy finished the seal with an expert flourish and wafted it over the storage seal twice, he then looked at the sheet of paper in his hand and pursed his lips, "nothing threatening so far; he only has the essentials every ninja has to have on a mission: spare clothing, spare kunai and shuriken, a nodachi, a spare mask, toiletries… that seems to be about it," he tore the paper up and drew another one on another thin sheet of paper, waving it over the trap seal once this time, Daku stood ready to intercept any problem that arose, "just a highly powered explosive seal, it would probably detonate when I unseal it, it would probably take out a quarter of Wave," storage seals and trap seals were eerily similar, the difference being that trap seals threw, or detonated, anything sealed inside while storage seals only dropped whatever was inside.

Naruto waved for the leaders to calm down, showing them non-verbally that he had no intention of blowing them up sky high. Naruto checked the other ninjas tongues and scanned their bodies, confirming that they too had the same seals on them, "you said these people have secrecy seals on them," Yumi began, the most interested of the village leaders, Naruto acknowledged her question with a positive hum as he looked at the seals on the first ninjas tongue again, "is there any way to nullify it, or the entire seal complex; so we can find out just who sent them,"

The young blonde seal master didn't respond for a while, only nodding slowly to himself, he then opened his mouth and said, "I can crack the fire storage seal and the suicide seal, but I have only seen the loyalty seal once or twice before," the boy scratched his chin, "I'll have to break the seals according to how they are stacked," he whipped out his brush and drew a clean 'x' on the first ninjas tongue, he channelled his chakra to the seal and a small smashing sound could be heard, "the fire storage seal is down,"

"That quick?" Samsato asked loudly,

"If I were a level five seal master I would require a piece of paper, or a scroll, to draw out a seal to destroy the storage seal, but since I am well versed with drawing miniature seals into small symbols it isn't that hard," he could visibly see the respect they have for him increase exponentially, he turned back to the ninja and handed his brush back to Daku. He traced his pointer finger over the next seal, the suicide seal, and after doing so he made a quick slashing motion, his blue chakra visible shattering the seal, "second seal down,"

The village leaders actually applauded quietly, the body guards too. Naruto smiled lightly at them and humoured them by making a flourish bow.

For the last, and possibly the hardest and most dangerous seal to crack, Naruto had Daku widen the ninja's mouth a bit, he raised his pointer finger again and traced the seal on the tongue, and after finishing he then began tracing the seal backwards, tiny drops of perspiration appeared on his forehead. When he finished he leaned back to marvel at what he had done, his blue chakra glowing over the loyalty seal and the nefarious seal glowed a soft green, showing that the seal was administered unwillingly.

He took in a deep breath and began flashing through a terribly long chain of hand seals, closing his eyes to remember the chain. His eyes snapped open after the last seal and he said, _"Hiden art: Fuinjutsu: First universal whirlpool seal breaker,"_ the air around the ninjas tongue rippled then the loyalty seals ink melted into a puddle on the unconscious ninjas neck. Naruto puffed out some air in relief, "third seal down,"

"Wonderful! Absolutely marvellous!" Kitsuen bellowed clapping his hands boisterously, Naruto nodded,

"Now," he dabbed a handkerchief on his forehead, not yet tired enough to sit down, "who wants to interrogate him,"

"I propose Kao interrogates him. He is well versed in interrogation techniques," Yumi piped up after a pause, indicating her second trench coat wearing body guard (both of her bodyguards wear trench coats), she looked at her comrades for any objection and when she heard none she motioned for the Chill shinobi to come forward.

"How are we going to wake him up?" Tu asked, still marvelling on the ease the boy used to break the seals. To answer her question Naruto simply reached to the intruding ninja and slapped him across the face, making the man's eyes snap open and a pained wheeze to escape his mouth.

"What the-"

"He's all yours, Kao-san," the Wave leader said, stepping back to where his fellow village leaders were standing.

Kao lazily slinked up to the lying ninja, who just so happened not to have any visible restraints but still could not get off the bed. The interrogator stared down blankly at the ninja, who was still futilely struggling against restraints he could not see, "what is your name?" he went straight to the point,

"I'd rather die than tell you anything," the person snarled, he clicked his tongue and his eyes widened in horror, "my seals-"

"Have been removed, so you can speak at your own free will. I shall ask again, what is your name?"

Suppressed memories began flooding the ninjas mind, how he had been taken from the orphanage, how he had been forced to do what he didn't want, _**kill**_ who he didn't want. He clenched his eyes shut in a futile attempt at summoning the till-death-loyalty he had for his master but could find none. Nothing whatsoever.

At that moment he began questioning whether or not he truly wanted to protect someone that had made him do all the heinous things he had done: assassinating royal delegations from Lightening and Earth countries in Whirlpool, making both power hungry countries think the humble village was looking for trouble and starting an uprising for world domination, poisoning the Uzumaki water supply with slow acting chakra eating virus when he was an honoured guest there; posing as a Konoha dignitaries child. At that time he had just graduated from the Root program, top of his group and it was the first mission his master had given him to prove his worth. His eyes opened when he heard a polite cough,

"Well?"

His master was a very powerful man, immensely so. He would not be surprised that after spewing out all the secrets he had on the man he would later be found dead in his cell. He wasn't even sure if his master was _his_ master anymore…

"I do not remember my name but my…master calls me Rat ( _ **Nezumi**_ )" his eyes were still closed, hoping his captors believed him.

Kao nodded slowly, "should I expect your full cooperation?"

A deep sigh escaped Rat and he looked over his life, feeling for the first time as old as he was supposed to be. Maybe…if he told these people what he knew and hoped for the best he would stay alive a little while longer…just maybe… he nodded his head, "yes…I'll cooperate," maybe that was why he had been given the name Rat, he would tell all he could to stay alive a little bit longer.

Naruto cracked a small smirk, barely visible to anyone besides Daku, who was very much used to seeing his expressionless master express something minutely. He snapped his fingers and Daku presented his wheelchair for him to sit down and sped down through the tunnel, returning with a scroll filled with the other village leaders chairs. When all were comfortable and the body guards were positioned at the corners of the room and behind the leaders the blonde leader of Wave motioned for Kao to begin the interrogation.

"Let us start from the beginning, Rat-san, who sent you to infiltrate here?"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _A day before the chunin exams finals_

 _Konoha_

Hyuuga Hiashi looked down at his daughters stoically, both girls mirrored his expressions back to him perfectly, "I want you two to spar," none broke expression. He looked pointedly at his eldest daughter, Hinata, and visible frowned, glaring down at her, expecting at least some perspiration to break out on her forehead. He was greatly surprised when she stood tall under his judging gaze, even still, he couldn't help but degrade her, "as much as a lost cause you are Hinata, do not make a total fool of yourself," since Hinata was now in a team he could only train his daughters maybe once or three times in a month, and beginning from a month ago his eldest daughter had become even more reclusive than normal. She woke up at three in the morning, as reported to him by her care taker (something she was too old for but something her father still insisted she have), and stalked out of the Hyuuga compound with astonishing stealth, bypassing chunin guards with years of experience. He had been told she wouldn't be seen or heard from again until her team met up for training two hours before midday.

He had charged Ko to keep track of her after then but whenever he saw her make a suspicious turn into corner weird things would happen, like the last time she ducked into a blacksmith/weapon store he was immediately hit with vertigo from children rushing past him, some even pulling his hands in different directions. Another time a cart of water melons had fallen _on top_ of him, literally appearing out of nowhere. Hiashi then began seriously doubting Ko; he sent out another Hyuuga branch member and was met with the same results. All the while Hinata would sneak back into the compound at about 8 in the night, dead tired and _cranky._

Goose bumps minutely rippled through him when he witnessed what happened if you woke up a cranky Hinata; he had to lay Ko off for a week from injuries to his private area. Worse part of it was that she didn't use gentle fist strikes to humble the man. A simple kick to the crotch and he was out of commission.

' _Poor Ko,'_ he mentally winced before he straightened up and glared down at his impassive daughter, spying from the corner of his eyes his youngest daughter, Hanabi, looking at her sister with blatant bewilderment. He was extremely partial to the girl. She had never been reprimanded or punished by him since the day she was born, and he would admit that she was spoilt. Hanabi then glared at her sister, who was now boredly pursing her lips. The little girl scowled. "Get into your stances," both girls, as one, sharply turned away from each other and stepped back two paces before turning to look at each other. Both then, again as one, bent down into the basic stance of the Hyuuga clan taijutsu style, The Gentle Fist. "All goes. Begin!" the man barked. Both of his daughters byakugan flared to life as the went through the required hand seals in sync,

" _Byakugan!"_

" _Byakugan,"_

Hanabi frowned heavily when her all seeing white eyes didn't detect any slight tremor her sister usually had, or any increase in heart rate. It was looking at a Nara boy sleeping but at the same time looking at an Akimichi eating slowly. Something that greatly confused her. She darted forward with a chakra palm for a strike to the belly, the usual way she ended her spars with her sister but something astonishing happened. Hinata twisted away from the strike and, with almost blinding speed, blocked all the tenketsu on Hanabi's striking hand. She being able to do so with her weight seals reduced to 40 pounds each limb. It still slowed her down but she would still admit that she was significantly faster than when she hadn't even began using weight seals.

The little girl flew past her, after having her arm turned into a useless sausage and stared in shock at her sister, Hiashi too doing so. Her eyes couldn't find any genjutsu on her and the only peculiar thing were the drawings on the back of her hands and at the top of her feet (she doesn't know fuinjutsu too well). Acting too slowly, Hinata reached forward and jabbed her attacking arms shoulder, making her body sag, then jabbed her belly twice.

Hanabi wobbled on her feet, her body feeling like it was dead already with only half of her upper body blocked off.

Hinata actually waited for the retaliatory strike to come but the little girl was still in shock, her mouth gaping at her 'dead' arm. Then the strikes seemed to rain down from the sky onto the younger girl, before she knew it she was a panting mess on the ground and Hinata was _**still**_ looking down on her blankly. This enraged her. She began visibly straining to move her body but it was to no avail, "stand down Hanabi…she won…" Hiashi, for all he was worth, never thought he'd ever say those words.

He warily eyed his eldest, and impassive, daughter. The girl bowed in respect for her opponent, who was foaming at the mouth and looked at him expectantly, which he wouldn't have caught if he wasn't an expert in reading miniature expressions. Her head tilted to him slightly and her lips quirked up a bit,

"You may leave,"

"Hai Tou-sama" and she stalked out of the training ground, not even sparing her mad sister a glance,

"Get back here and face me like a woman!" she struggled bonelessly, "I wasn't ready! Get back here!" Hiashi refrained from looking amused.

"Hanabi, that's enough. We are going to increase your training, next time you'll be ready,"

Meanwhile with Hinata, immediately her clan compound was out of view she belted straight into training ground 8, then slipped through the trees to her blonde sensei's private place, "sensei! Naruto-sensei!" she fell on her face, panting like race horse before she got herself under control and stood up straight, her face as blank as when she was with her family, albeit a slight bit red tinged. The boy on the wheelchair, the _real_ Naruto, looked at her with mild curiosity,

"Yes, Hinata?" he had arrived back in Konoha a week prior and was fully informed on what he had gotten himself into,

"I finally beat her," she puffed out, her chest inflating with pride, "I finally beat my sister in taijutsu," the blonde boy had casually noticed that compliments did a lot of good to the girls confidence so he decided to oblige her,

"Well done Hinata," those small words did a world of things to the girl; she blush heavily, she looked down, she poked a blade of grass with her foot, but she still stood up straight, still remembering that her teacher preferred confidence, as little as she could give. The boy allowed her to have her moment of glory, "as a reward you would not need to train for today or tomorrow, you will still have your weight seals active," on cue she felt her body sag under the added weight (90 pounds). "Now take a seat, I have something's' to tell you,"

The girl snapped out of her blush induced daze and sat cross legged on the ground looking up at him.

"The first thing I want to tell you is that I have been receiving troubling news from my spies," her eyes widened, not knowing that her semi-crippled teacher had spies,

' _Sensei has spies?! He's cooler than I thought!'_

He gauged her reaction and when he didn't see any shift in loyalty from her pale eyes he continued, "it seems five Konoha patrol stations at the north have been taken over by Hidden Sand and a new shinobi village known as Sound," she remained composed, surprised that the normally reclusive boy had told her even this much, "I do not think this bodes well for Konoha, seeing how many of the shinobi are there. They are presently lying in wait until tomorrow, which I predict is when they will strike,"

"An invasion…" she murmured,

"Exactly,"

"What do you want me to do sensei?"

"I want you to answer that question yourself, Hinata,"

She looked at the ground and furrowed her eyebrows in thought before she looked up and said, "I will defend Konoha since it is my responsibility as a shinobi," a ghost of a smile crossed Naruto's face and she nodded resolutely, believing she had answered correctly,

"Yes, it is your responsibility, but you have to protect Konoha because it is your home. This is where all your friends and your comrades live, if Konoha is not present then you have no home," she nodded again, "listen to your superiors and make sure you lend a hand in helping out, if you survive tomorrow then I shall give you a reward as well as bring you into my confidence," now Hinata _**definitely**_ had to survive the invasion; the person she looked up to, her _idol,_ had put enough faith in her to train her and now he was going to tell her more things, making her stronger.

"I won't let you down sensei,"

"I trust that you won't. The second thing I wish to ask you is about your ambition," she tilted her head to the side in question, "what is your ambition Hinata?"

"To-to be as strong as _you_ , sensei,"

Her response actually made the blonde seal master pause, "I'm flattered by your response but every sensei does not want his students, or student in your case, to be _as strong as_ him, he wants his students to be stronger _than_ him, _greater_ than him," he allowed her some seconds to digest what he had just said, "I want you to set your target in the sky and shoot for it, maybe even _over_ -shoot it. Now, I'll ask again, what is your ambition?"

Hinata again looked down and pursed her lips in thought, something she had unknowingly learnt from Naruto and thought deep on her ambition, _'I don't want to say my ambition is to become a jounin, Naruto-sensei said he has seals and body traps that could level a battle field if he wanted and take out numerous jounin. I don't want to say I want to become an A rank ninja, if sensei was to become a ninja_ he _would be an A rank ninja. If I keep beating Hanabi in our spars I will definitely become the clan head, but…even that still seems too low,'_ then her eyes drifted to the side and she caught sight of the Hokage's monument, _'that's it!'_ she looked at Naruto with fire in her eyes, "I will become Hokage,"

Here Naruto graced her with a small smile, she met it with her own, and he reached forward and ruffled her hair, "that's the sky Hinata, all you have to do is reach it,"

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Hiden art: Fuinjutsu: First universal whirlpool seal breaker: this is a jutsu created by the Nidaime Uzukage, Yurishiki Uzumaki, to break the influence a loyalty seal has on a person. It is a hidden art passed down only to those in the Uzumaki royal family. The Nidaime Uzukage created two 'Universal seal breakers'. The second one being made to nullify a master/slave seal completely. Kushina Uzumaki was the only known Uzumaki royal family member that had split the number of hand signs to less than half, further showing how deep her mastery in fuinjutsu was. It is said that the chakra requirement for using this jutsu is A rank as shown when the scroll holding all forbidden/hidden Uzumaki ninjutsu/genjutsu/taijutsu/fuinjutsu/etc. was read by an academy age boy, who later passed out from strain.**_

 _ **More Uzumaki exclusive jutsu would be shown in subsequent chapters.**_

 **So? What do you all think? Did I do well?**

 **Let's all face it, Kureanai coddles Hinata; she doesn't do things to toughen her up, only to cheer her up and make her feel better. Naruto had corrected what she had done by telling her exactly what was wrong with her. Hinata just got frustrated with hearing all she didn't want to admit herself and exploded. It's the hard truth, so don't bash Naruto for telling her it. And you see how easily Hinata took down her sister? Even though she could have done it in canon.**

 **Rat is an orphan, typical Root material. But he was an unwilling member. Never fear though, you'll see a little more of him, and his comrades, in the next chapter or the subsequent chapters.**

 **Any questions, complaints, criticism and ideas should be forwarded to my Pm or review, I'm cool with either one.**

 **Oh and before I forget, I'm almost done typing up a new story…well…** _ **two**_ **new stories… They're Harry Potter stories, but I plan on releasing only one for now and releasing the other if I see the first has a good enough reception. Any Potterhead out there that'll like to read it be ready, I'd appreciate it if you reviewed too.**

 **With these last words, please review.**

 **See you on the flip side. :)**

 **Foy.**


	7. Chapter 7

CHAPTER 7

Naruto's status as Kyuubi's jinchuriki, as the great beast called him, wasn't as secret as the Sandaime hope…

' _What was I expecting? That the Sandaime would finally pull through for something? That's laughable and I know it,'_ Naruto thought as he, again used one of his silver snake ropes, having three in total, to grab a Sand shinobi by his throat and throw another seal augmented weapon at him, a silver chain, at the man's forehead. On contact a seal warped into life on the man's head, forming the complex kanji for 'deep sleep'. All the supposed 'guards' the Hokage had appointed had failed, had been blindsided by the snap genjutsu and the sheer number of the invaders.

The seal master felt the barrier sphere around him tingle and he, without looking, repeated his last action, adding the Sand shinobi to the countless sleeping shinobi around him. No blood was shed, he didn't like killing. Yet.

His 'X' seal tingled and Daku appeared before him on his right knee, "Naruto-sama,"

"I want you to go and assist the others in fending off the invaders," nodding in appreciation when Daku shot two wooden stacks behind him at two ninjas creeping, "make sure you're not clearly seen, there are not any Uchiha that can track you and the Hyuuga are too busy pushing out the snakes. If you see that the 'Kazekage' is winning on the roof, lend a hand there as well. Am I understood?"

"Hai, Naruto-sama," he stood up and saluted to his master sharply, "mind I ask what you will be doing, Naruto-sama?"

Here Naruto allowed a ghost of a smile to cross his face, "I'm going to exercise my legs," he flicked his eyes to the rampaging sand jinchuriki in the arena. Daku nodded and blinked out of sight, not using any jutsu; just pure speed. Naruto slowly creaked to his feet and rolled his shoulders before he then remembered something. He leaned down to his wheelchair…and tapped the right arm…

On the far east side of Konoha, Teams eight and ten were busy ushering in the civilians and academy students into an underground bunker. Hinata, with her face set in a light smile, assured a tiny girl and her mother that everything was going well. Her eyes widened exponentially when she felt her weight seals drop completely.

' _kami-sama am I flying!?'_ she looked at both her hands and stamped her feet on the ground lightly to make sure her feet were still firmly on the ground, _'sensei dropped the seals! I feel so light!'_

"Hinata-chan, are you ok?" Kiba Inuzuka asked her,

She turned to him and grinned widely, doing so for the first time in a week or so, and laughed, "I'm more than ok Kiba-kun! I feel great!"

"Hinata-san…" Shino murmured tentatively as he watched her curiously, she lifted her hand in the air and let it drop, flapping her arms ridiculously, then she began doing a weird equivalent of the toad dance. He was at least glad the civilians and the academy students were safely inside so they won't see the Hyuuga heiress make a fool of herself, "what has gotten into you?"

"I feel so free Shino-kun!" she did a handless backflip, twirling dextrously in the sky before she landed, and much to Shino's surprise she didn't kick up any dust. Not that Kiba noticed though,

"Snap out of it Hinata-chan, this isn't the time to play around," just then, the ground rocked with a massive explosion, throwing the team off balance, "I don't know about you two, but I'm going to help fight. You with me Akamaru?!" _bark!_

The Aburame heir shrugged and looked at Hinata, frowning slightly when he didn't see any visible nerves, very much not like the Hinata he knew, and she wasn't an illusion, his hive assured him that, "you don't have to-" before he could finish his sentence Hinata blurred out of sight, "come…Hinata-san…"

"Where'd she go?!" Kiba yelled,

"My hive says she went that way, to centre of the village," Shino started running after her, relying completely on his hive to track her since he couldn't even see her. Kiba and his animal partner sped after the Aburame and chased Hinata. When they got to where Shino had lost track of the Hyuuga heiress Shino murmured to himself, "kami-sama…" this was because before him and his male team mate lay bodies of incapacitated Sound shinobi, they had deep groves on their chests, directly above their heart with blood trickling out of the corner of their mouths,

"Who _did_ this…" the dog boy was fairly certain he knew how all the jounin fought since a chunin certainly couldn't wreck this much damage,

Shino raised his pointer finger eye level and a bug landed on it weakly, he stared at it for half a minute before he responded, "it was Hinata…"

Meanwhile Hinata was currently a speeding frenzy that blurred past enemy shinobi, leaving them close to dead and unknowing on who got past them. She thrust her hands out and mistakenly punched through a Sand konouchi's chest. Not disturbed by the blood shed too much since technically she had 'killed' someone before; a mysterious stranger that had wanted to kidnap her during a training session with Naruto. The boy had his back turned and the shadowy kidnapper landed noisily behind her. She acted before she could think; she threw her fist straight into the person chest and watched with wide, horrified eyes as life left his eyes and blood pumped onto her hand. She had tried to keep her composure around Naruto after that to show that it didn't get to her, not noticing that the 'dead body' of the kidnapper had melted into a puddle of water.

Her byakugan caught sight of a kunai training onto her back and she rolled forward and lifted a Sound shinobi so the weapon sliced through his lungs. She whirled around and glared at the team of Sound shinobi that surrounded her,

"lookie her boys, we've got a rebellious teen on our hands," the apparent leader sneered, "you should have stayed hidden, maybe our master would have use for your eyes," he wore the standard clothing for chunin group leaders and had not distinguishing facial features,

"You want my eyes," she settled into a rock solid gentle fist stance, "come and get them,"

The man smirked cockily, "gladly, get her!" fully expecting the obvious genin to turn tail and run but was surprised when she was the one to act first. She shoulder tackled one of his comrades with blazing speed and with a sharp upper cut she shattered his jaw.

"…oops… who's next?" now the rest of his team were hesitant, the supposed little girl had taken down a chunin of average strength in five seconds flat. They cowardly wavered in place, nervously looking at their leader,

"We've got the numbers advantage you idiots!" his angered shout seemed to bolster what little bravery that had; they slipped out their kunai and dived to their opponent. Seeing this Hinata, using her byakugan, snorted at how slow they seemed to be going. She poked a man's ribs with a chakra laced finger which made the victim fall onto his opponent, yelling in pain. She blazed her hands over another opponent and the man crumbled bonelessly to the ground. The Hyuuga then did a flawless spin to dodge a wave of shuriken, plucking two out of the sky and nailing two chunin Sound shinobi on their foreheads.

She barrelled into a chunin and jabbed his chest twice, ducked a sloppy and tired right hook, and jabbed his chest again. The man wheezed and tried another right hook but this one failed as much as the first one, she stepped aside and snap kicked the man across his face, bursting an eyeball.

"Uhm…whoopsie…" she winced. Her all seeing eyes fore warned her about the imminent danger of a barrage of _'Earth release: Mud ball landslide'_ sent to her courtesy of the last remaining chunin invader, the leader of the dead group and glared at him,

"You killed all my men!" he snarled in fury, powering through another set of hand seals, _"Earth release: Heat seeking rock balls!"_ the ground around him gurgled and began spitting out fist sized rocks at the girl. She dived out of the way from a massive wave and was subsequently thrown away from the resulting explosion, it wasn't the largest she had seen but she wasn't expecting it, "stay still!"

Hinata refrained from slapping the attacking balls away, the tiny objects still going a bit too slow for her. She neatly caught a ball and blurred to her attacker, ramming the exploding ball down his hysterically open mouth and covering her face with her sleeve as the man's head literally exploded. She stuck her tongue out in quiet distaste, "gross," she looked around her and nodded when she say that no trouble was forthcoming, "where do I go now…?" Just then a deep, beastly bellow came from the chunin exams arena, "there," and she blurred out of sight again.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto didn't expect to be having this much fun fighting a sand monster.

The boy was currently running at low chunin speed, which was as fast as he could go, away from aggressive sand spikes being shot at him from the mad one tailed beast holder,

' **You are enjoying yourself way too much Naruto,'** Kyuubi rumbled from deep inside Naruto's seal, amused by his brother's attempts at staking his holder. Naruto was really glad now that he had listened to the nine tails to study fuinjutsu. He raised his forearm and a hazy blue rectangular shield spiralled out of a seal on that arm, blocking the sand spikes attacking him effectively **(think something like a Roman shield)**. He dug his feet into the ground when the intensity increased and stuck his hand into a pocket in his baggy pants, bringing out a sheet of paper with a very complex seal drawn on it. He threw the sheet of paper like a shuriken and watched with grim satisfaction as a subsequent inferno turned the sand covering the Kazekage's son half turned to glass.

The boy seriously began to wonder the true loyalty Konoha ninja had since more than half of the shinobi populace ran over to protect the Sandaime, knowing the man was still fully capable, instead of trying to stop the walking natural disaster that was Shukaku and his jinchuriki. Though he was glad for their absence, seeing as that he didn't want any ninja or civilian to see him fighting except his opponents. The first problem he encountered was the lone Uchiha, Sasuke, who was doing fairly well against the sand monster. He knocked the boy out with a deep sleep silver chain tap to the back of his head before he could react.

Gaara's sibling watched in awe as the boy they knew they saw sitting on a wheelchair hold his own against the terror of Hidden Sand. They were beginning to waver in the direct command Gaara had given them, to not get in his way.

Naruto wore a dark blue and black long sleeved shirt that was still neat despite all the sand he had to battle through, with black baggy pants. He flew through three hand seals, _"Ninja art: Fuinjutsu: Child of paper chaos!"_ sheets of paper flew out of his sleeves immediately after the last hand seal and exploded all over the Gaara, who was almost in his full sand Tanuki form.

"I will have your blood!" Gaara yelled with crazed eyes, pumping a lot of chakra into his glass limbs to shatter them, he cackled madly and did something Naruto did not expect.

He fell asleep.

"Shukaku is back baby! Woo!" the sand monster formed out of the gooey sand around the sleeping boy and threw his arms in the air in celebration. He looked down at Naruto, who was glaring up at him lightly, "oho! So you're the bug trying to kill me?" he swung his arm to Naruto, creating a deep grove wherever it passed, forcing the seal master to run lengthwise away from it, "run little rat! Run!"

The boy ran up and wall and glued himself in place, his mind was a whirlwind of ideas on how to take down the beast,

"Naruto-sensei!"

"Hinata?" he turned to his only student as she called, forgetting his opponent. Shukaku capitalized on this by throwing his arm at Naruto, who was only fast enough to create his rectangular blue shield to take the brunt of the attack. He was thrown across the arena straight into a wall. Dust exploded in his wake.

"Sensei!" Hinata cried in horror, not expecting her sensei to get blindsided. Shukaku yelled in triumph and took his time to celebrate.

The semi-crippled boy coughed and waved away the dust in the air from his face, the dust blew away slowly to reveal the fuinjutsu master encased in a softly glowing blue ball embedded in the wall, "got to love seals," he mumbled and deactivated the protective blue shell casing around him so he could land on the ground,

"You're a stubborn little shit, you know that right," the sand Tanuki growled and threw his hands to Naruto, _"Wind release: sand scattering bullets!"_ the intensity of the sand based attacks increased and pelted down on Naruto, who activated his arm shield to deflect them. He again threw an exploding seal paper shuriken at the monster and used the beast's frustrated cry to run to his shocked student,

"What are you doing here?" he asked coolly, throwing three more paper infernos to Shukaku,

"I-I came to see how could help…" she murmured, her eyes trained on Temari and Kankuro who were at the other side of the arena, ready to help when necessary,

Naruto silently contemplated how she could help, he threw three more exploding paper shuriken, turning the beast body almost completely to glass, "I need you to distract the sand beast while I get close to that boy at its forehead," he pointed at Gaara,

Her knees shook slightly in fear, "I don't know if I can do it,"

"I saw how fast you can run and how hard you can hit," he didn't, he just correctly assumed the weight seals being down would bring those results, "you'll be fine," he patted her shoulder to reassure her, before the girl could respond, he spun around to his main opponent and sped over to it, _"Fire release: great fire ball jutsu,"_ the arm that had been coming down in a merciless axe chop immediately turned to glass. Hinata snapped out of her daze and sped to the sand monster,

" _Wind release: Great break through!"_ she was fairly inexperienced with the jutsu, seeing as wind funnelled out of her mouth in a straight line to Shukaku, slicing off his other sand arm. Naruto had only introduced her to using jutsu a week ago, beating the idea into her head that her taijutsu would not be enough to beat all. Her affinity, strangely enough, was water but she was more comfortable with wind jutsu, though she only knew one jutsu. Naruto had promised to teach her more Wind and Water jutsu. She powered through the seals again and cut off half of the sand monsters face, almost grazing Gaara, making the beast more enraged, forgetting Naruto.

" _Fire release: Great fire ball jutsu,"_

" _Wind release: Great break through!"_

Both attacks met at the centre and the wind jutsu cut through the fire, coming out with a terribly hot gas spike that nailed Shukaku in his chest. The result was instantaneous; glass began cracking and webbing from his chest to his arms, to where his feet were supposed to be. Naruto used his hysterical panic to run up its torso, clinging on with his chakra. When he got to Gaara he pulled his hand back and gave the sleeping boy a sharp slap.

 _Thwack!_

The sound reverted around the arena and silence fell around, nobody inside the arena dared breathe.

"He _slapped_ him…" Temari murmured, her knees feeling weak, Kankuro only nodded dumbly,

Their younger brothers eyes snapped open and the sand monsters body crumbled to the ground, Naruto grabbed the boy by his arm and leaped away, saving the sleepy boy from the glass shards under them. He dropped the boy by a wall and slumped down to the ground for a breather. Hinata knelt down beside him with furrowed eyebrows and asked the nonverbal question, "I'm fine, just a bit tired," he waved her concerns away, his shield warped to life and he held it to Gaara's neck as he tried to slink away, doing so without looking away from the arriving sand siblings,

"Who-who are you?" Gaara said in a quiet, trembling voice; he dared not shift or the shields edge would cut into his neck,

"You may call me Naruto," he said to Gaara lightly and sat up, "not a step closer or you'll lose a brother," he warned Temari and Kankuro, both held up their hands to show they weren't going to try anything, "I can see those strings, puppet master, don't even think about it," he warned again and pressed his shield closer to the one tailed jinchuriki neck, a thin bloody line formed under, showing them that the shield made out of a complex seal was truly sharp. Temari glared at her direct younger brother and Kankuro, "now, give me a reason not to kill all of you, right here, right now," he stood up and Hinata stood protectively behind him, glaring icily at the duo. When both fumbled for words and couldn't answer he shrugged nonchalantly, "I thought so," he raised his had a bit and before he could plunge it through Gaara's neck Kankuro yelled,

"Wait!" Naruto raised a curious eyebrow, "we-we have information. Just-just…let's not do anything _rash_ ,"

Naruto cocked his head to the side curiously; looking so innocent Temari would have swooned if her brother wasn't literally under the knife, and asked, "What kind of information?"

"The-reasons-we're-invading kind of information," he ignored his sister when she looked sharply at him, Naruto nodded for him to continue, "Orochimaru of the Sannin somehow convinced our father, the Kazekage, that Konoha was the enemy and by invading here we would expand Sand and make it wealthier. He didn't want to listen to reason."

"That's enough for me," he pulled his shield away from Gaara and stepped back, allowing his siblings to worry over him, "your brother and sister really care for you Sand shinobi-san, releasing confidential information just so they can keep you alive. Now _that_ is love," he turned around to go,

"How are you strong!? You're not supposed to be able to walk!" Gaara asked loudly,

"I'm strong because I have something worth living for," referring to Wave and all that (unknowingly) depended on him inside and out, Hinata included. The seal on his belly tingled and he looked up to the ceiling, sensing the fight above, he waved for Hinata to go and help secure the borders, "next time, Sand shinobi-san, use your own strength before you use another's, that's what I did," he ran out of the arena just as the meaning of what he said dawned on them,

"He has a tailed beast…" Kankuro mumbled,

"And he didn't use it," Temari finished,

Gaara looked at his siblings and his shoulders sagged from stress, years of pain and heart break, "Temari…Kankuro…I'm sorry," maybe if he learned to love them again he could be as strong as that blonde boy. Love them even more than they loved him.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Just as Daku left Naruto_

 _The roof_

Naruto's dark half hummed to himself as he observed the barrier seals summoned by the 'Sound Four'. He poked it and pulled his hand back when it began smoking, his hand began reforming immediately after. He wasn't the only one trying to gain entry into the seal; the Sandaime's ANBU guard were also trying. The Sandaime was locked inside the seal against Orochimaru of the Sannin.

At the moment Orochimaru was making a rather long monologue on how Hiruzen had made a mistake in not appointing him the Hokage, and that he was going to destroy the leaf since he couldn't have it for himself. It was much longer than that but you get the point. Daku rolled his red fox-like sclera eyes and ran through his limited knowledge on seals, sadly though he couldn't think of any way to counter a 'Four point barrier seal' which was much more stronger than a simple barrier seal. So he cast a powerful transformation on himself, making himself look like a blank faced ANBU shinobi and walked briskly to one of the 'points' on the barrier.

He scratched his chin before pulled his hand back, forming a stone stake, and fired directly at Jirobo's feet, throwing off his concentration and allowing Daku to slide inside much faster than the other ninja.

"Another one of you toys Orochimaru?" Hiruzen snarled as he turned to the mysterious Daku, "who are you?" he commanded, Orochimaru paused in his rant and looked as well.

"I am here to assist you, Sandaime-sama," Daku responded and, not one for theatrics, shoulder tackled Orochimaru to the ground, stabbing him clean through the head with a stone stake, humming sourly when the man melted into a mud puddle,

"You're fast, I'll give you that," Orochimaru hissed from behind Daku, bringing his leg down for a skull shattering axe kick but the stranger turned around much faster than he anticipated and crossed his arms, taking the full brunt of the legendary snake Sannin kick with his wood, stone and seal augmented arms. Not even wincing when his arm broke, he swept his feet under Orochimaru and as expected the man leaped over it, he used the split second the man was airborne to snap his arm back together. "And durable. Are you sure you don't want to join my ranks? There's always a place for one of your skill," the man landed in front of the stranger and smirked.

Daku didn't even deem the man an answer; he honed his arms to the snake summoner and began shooting at him. The pasty pale man regurgitated his 'Grass cutter sword' and began hacking away at the annoying missiles. His head caved inside his shoulders from a smash from the Sandaime's adamantium bow staff. He again melted into a puddle of mud, his sword as well.

"two against one hardly seems fair, let me even the odds," the snake Sannin said from behind the Sandaime, making the elder Sarutobi swing his legs behind him and watching as Orochimaru slinked back like a snake, going through a set of hand seals, _"Summoning: Impure world reincarnation,"_ he hissed the name of the jutsu as he finished the seals and three wooden coffins shot out of the ground beside him.

The lids popped off and Hiruzen gasped in horror, "you have really gone too far, Orochimaru,"

The pale man snarled in response, " _ **You**_ forced me down this path, it's only fitting you die by your predecessors," one by one the occupants of the coffins walked out,

"Hiruzen? Man, you got _old_!" Hashirama exclaimed,

Tobirama, the cooler of the two, looked around, "we are not supposed to be alive. My jutsu has been perfected?" he looked to his left and snorted when he saw a pile of ash on the ground, "not too perfect it seems…" using their distraction, Orochimaru jammed seal kunai at the back of their necks, making their eyes glaze over,

"Kill your sensei and that other person," he didn't count on the fact that the corpses he re-animated weren't at full strength. Daku split himself into four and blurred over to Hashirama, while the Nidaime, Tobirama, ran to his student.

The fight between the first Hokage and Naruto's loyal shadow was like looking at the sun reflect off a kunai; with the speed both shinobi were using to trade blows, blocks and counters most would say it would be enough to generate power.

Hashirama drilled punches to Daku's head and the dark shadow raised his forearms to catch all of the blows, fixing them up immediately after and twisting the Wood style user's fist mid-flight and roughly pulling it out of his socket. He didn't stop; he sent over a brain bashing axe kick to the dead man cheek, then another one, then another one, driving the man back and dazing him slightly. Hashirama caught a leg before it could reach his face again but didn't count on Daku's clones sending chakra powered punches to his face and ribs. If he were alive he knew he would have been in a world of pain.

The clones worked in tandem to physically break down the Hokage's defence, not slowing him down though. The dead man blinked in shock when the stranger's hands turned to sharp stone stakes, firing them between his eyes and driving him back even more.

Daku silently ran up to the dizzy man and had his knee meet the dead Hokage's chin in a wicked rising knee kick, taking the man into the air. The clones capitalized on this by leaping up as well and shoving him into the barrier. Ending the fight.

Hiruzen seemed to be having the same idea. He bent away from some 'Water release: Drilling Water bullets,' and smashed his sensei's chin with his unbreakable iron staff. He grunted in pain though when Orochimaru slid up behind him and plunged his sword through his spine and out his belly.

"I _win_ sensei," Orochimaru gloated, not seeing how the Daku clones threw the Nidaime into the barrier as well, destroying him and releasing his soul back to the after-life.

Blood dripped out of the Sandaime's mouth and ears as the lethal toxins in the Grass cutter leaked into his system through his spine, his eyes felt much too heavy to be kept open but the insistent yells from his subordinates to not give up. His breathing got heavier and he tried to slow down his heart rate, to slow down the poisons.

"Die sensei… just die," was the soothing hiss from one of his failures, his student. A rough hand grabbed the Sannin by the neck and threw him away, still holding his sword. The man expertly flipped to his feet and scowled at Daku before he smiled pleasantly, "there is nothing you can do to save him, stranger, his immune system is too frail to fight my poisons. He will die today," Daku gently lay the old Hokage on the ground, still keeping his eyes on Orochimaru, "sadly though I would not see it," he swallowed his sword and whistled for his Sound Four to drop the barrier, "when you are ready to join me, all you have to do…is call," he then melted into a muddy goo on the ground and the Sound Four flickered out of sight via shunshin.

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Earth release: Mud ball landslide: is a C rank jutsu that fires strong balls of mud out of the user's mouth to wherever he wishes to attack or target.**_

 _ **Earth release: Heat seeking rock balls: is an A rank technique that was adapted from 'Earth release:**_ _ **Rock**_ _ **ball landslide' (that's different from the one above since this one uses rocks and that one uses mud). It shoots exploding rock balls the size of an average adult's fist at the intended target from the ground. This jutsu is dangerous because the rock balls have to**_ _ **break**_ _ **before they explode, allowing the opponent to catch one and hurl it back.**_

 _ **Ninja art: Fuinjutsu: Child of paper chaos: this is an A rank jutsu created by Uzumaki Kushina herself after seeing a magic show in Konoha, where the magician made origami paper butterflies fly out of his sleeves. This jutsu is a combination of ninjutsu and fuinjutsu in the sense that specific affinity chakra seals have to be drawn on thick sheets of paper and they have to be blown out of trap seals on the wrists, so the paper would actually spin in the air like a shuriken to the target. On contact with anything it would explode into the affinity channelled in.**_

 **Any questions, complaints and criticism can be forwarded to my Pm or the review, I'm cool with either.**

 **So? What did you all think?**

 **I am aware that I might have created a monster by making Hinata that strong but quite frankly it was coming, don't kill me over it.**

 **The Shodaime may have been a bit too under powered, Daku didn't give him room to make any of his legendary wood jutsu. So was the Nidaime.**

 **Next chapters gonna be wicked cool… I hope… I haven't started typing it down yet.**

 **Tell me what you honestly think; I'd really like to know.**

 **See you guys on the flip side.**

 **Please review.**

 **Foy.**


	8. Chapter 8

**Oh my goodness! All you guys reviews are awesome! I greatly appreciate each and every one of them.**

 **Shout out to 'Legendary Earthling' for your wicked awesome review, I'm glad you think so. Daku is ever growing in strength and skills so he's definitely an AA rank ninja, slipping slowly into S rank. As a plus Naruto is A rank, even though he isn't a ninja.**

 **Shout out to 'Ezeakel' for bringing this chapter idea to me. I mean I LITERALLY wouldn't have written this chapter if he didn't mention a few names for me. If you're still reading this Ezeakel, you are freaking fantastic!**

 **Give Akatsuki some time and they'll make an appearance. ;)**

 **Once again, thank you all. Don't stop there, please review some more. :D**

CHAPTER 8

 _Konoha,_

Naruto was in the middle of training Hinata how to control her speed and strength whenever her weight seals were completely down when Jiraiya entered the clearing. The toad sage curiously looked at Hinata, who was going through the kata for the gentle fist painfully slow. She was barefooted standing on a bed of senbon. He noted that she was not wearing her usual purple jacket; she was now wearing a tight black shirt that stopped mid riff and dark blue ninja pants. He wasn't aware of the fact that she had tightly wrapped chest bindings under her shirt to make sure that her budding breasts didn't throw off her centre of gravity. He did see that her arms to her fingers and her stomach were wrapped up in bandages, probably from intense tenketsu training.

It was a month after the chunin exams and Konoha was still mourning the death of the Sandaime.

What Orochimaru had said was true. The old man's fragile immune system couldn't handle the calibre of toxins in his body. He was at least glad that the man died peacefully.

The girl, who had long since noticed his presence, kept going with her training. She slowly pushed her palm forward then back to her shoulders, then lifted her right leg forward and spun on her left in a passably executed round house kick, something that was definitely _not_ in the Gentle fist taijutsu style. The man furrowed his eyebrow at that then frowned fractionally in thought, wondering when Naruto had started training the girl, seeing as the boys vacant wheelchair was under a tree along with Hinata's purple coat folded neatly on the seat. He had deduced Naruto was training her because he had watched how Kureanai trained her team, this was much harder and he knew as a fact that the Hyuuga heiress would not purposely put herself through this.

"Where is Naruto?" he asked, the girl slowly stretched her body, with her right foot still on a senbon, and pointed to her left, "thank you," and she went back to her own training,

Jiraiya, choosing for once to be serious, entered the small clump of trees into a significantly smaller clearing to find Naruto relaxing on a tree branch, looking down at a young girl, probably 8 years old, with brown hair. She had on simple clothes; brown shorts and a black shirt. The girl was sitting cross legged in the middle of the small clearing with her palms together horizontally.

Naruto glanced at him, "hello, Jiraiya-sama," he waved for the girl to keep meditating when her eyes opened. Naruto sat up on the branch and looked at the older man, "to what do I owe this visit?"

Jiraiya crossed his arms, "a better question is why you are training the Hyuuga and the Kurama heiress'?"

Naruto shrugged in reply, "I don't see how that is any of your concern," he didn't break under the pressure of the war veterans stare, "why are you here again?"

"I came to tell you that we have a mission," the man said,

"I remember quite vividly that the Sandaime disallowed me from joining the academy, I'm sure he told you that," the younger seal master said as he tossed a pair of ear buds to Yakumo Kurama when her eyes opened again, "focus, Yakumo," the girl quietly nodded and plugged her ears before she went back to meditating. He had found the girl about to slip a kitchen knife through her throat in his special clearing; he had stopped her just in time with his snake rope. The reason behind her suicide attempt was because her mentor had blocked her from becoming a ninja, seeing as how she had a demon locked up inside her. She told him that since before she could walk her ambition had been to become a ninja but after she had been found in a pool of her clan's main branch blood by her mentor, Kureanai Yuuhi had sealed up her chakra, leaving only the barest minimum for her to live.

The woman did so with a heavy heart, ready to bear the full brunt of the younger girls hate instead of transferring her rage to Konoha.

Her case reminded Naruto of himself, besides the suicide attempt. He had always wanted to be a ninja and had pushed fuinjutsu to its limits to accomplish this but the person he once looked up to barred him from becoming one, telling him that he was too weak. The boy had, grudgingly, asked her if she wanted to come under his tutelage. He summoned Hinata and had her display the extent of growth she had gone under since she started training two months and a half ago. Thankfully she agreed.

The Kurama heiress' physical and mental problems were worse than Hinata's. She had basically been a recluse in her clan, despite the fact that she was the Kurama heiress, her confidence was as a bit under Hinata's and, quite literally, Naruto's toes were stronger than Yakumo's whole body, and that was saying something since the boy didn't know any taijutsu style. But Naruto wasn't one to back down from a challenge; he suspected that it was his Uzumaki genes working up. He first tore off the chakra seal on her and taught her how to meditate, making sure to oversee their sessions in case her inner demon managed to come out. The boy insisted on knowing what the demon could do before he could create an effective seal against it.

His eyes refocused on the Sannin and looked questionably for an answer to his question, "when we found you, you were in the centre of sleeping Sound shinobi, and all your guards were dead," Naruto shrugged, "information about your jinchuriki status has leaked out and the council has decided that for your safety it would be best if you had the strongest guard,"

The blonde boy raised an eyebrow, "wouldn't it be best if I was left _alone_? I _did_ do more than my 'guards'" he air quoted, making the Sannin chuckle,

"The fact still remains that I have to have you with me for as long as possible,"

Naruto looked the man in the eye for a full minute, making cold sweat break out on his forehead, "what else did the Sandaime request?"

The man's shoulders slumped tiredly, already giving up the charade, "that I teach you how to handle Kyuubi's chakra,"

"I can learn that on my own," he turned around and looked at his youngest student,

"Have you unlocked it?" his eyes widened in horror,

Naruto made a flippant hand gesture at his side, "more or less,"

"And what does _that_ mean?"

"That means I have _met_ the beast and we have reached an _agreement_ ," he said it slowly like he was talking to a toddler,

"You met Kyuubi!?"

Naruto rolled his eyes, "yes and he is fairly pleasant, but that is beside the point; I wish to exercise my legs outside the village, what 'mission' do we have?" he air quoted again,

Jiraiya chose to push the discussion on just how the boy had unlocked the Kyuubi's chakra for later, "the Sandaime says that he wants us to go and retrieve Tsunade Senju," the slug Sannin. Knowing Naruto he won't get any sort of surprised response, and he was proven right when Naruto merely nodded. "There are many injured ninja as well as the fact he wants her to become the Godaime,"

"When do we leave?"

"Tomorrow at noon,"

"I'll be there…can I assume I still won't be a ninja?"

"I'm sorry kid-" another flippant hand gesture and he stopped speaking, "how long can you walk,"

"About five hours, I can run for four," knowing a dismissal when he sees one Jiraiya left the clearing to wherever he usually went to for leisure. At the end of supervising Hinata's training he gave her an A rank water jutsu to perfect and tasked her to learn and master as many Hyuuga taijutsu attacks as possible. He handed over the shy Yakumo to the recovering Hinata, tasking the older girl to look after the younger girl while he was away. He then gave Hinata a scroll filled with body lock seals just in case Yakumo's inner demon showed up as well as chakra draining seals to knock the girl out. He told her that the first sign of trouble was if black veins began creeping up Yakumo's neck. Though Daku shadow clones had been secretly looking over the girl at night.

Hinata, choosing to be the bigger girl, promised to look after her fellow student, adding that she would as well look over the girls training while he was away.

Leaving the village with the chatty Jiraiya, Naruto reflected on his own personal skills. He was a level nine master of fuinjutsu, which meant that the simple barrier seals he made were practically impenetrable if the attacker had less chakra than him. He had his shield seal tattooed to the back of his forearms and his shins, with new seals he developed called 'Tree Root seals' on his calf. Those seals basically reinforced his legs into the ground in case he had to block an attack from an opponent with larger body mass. The tree root seals made chakra roots stick Naruto's legs into the ground and increased his arm muscles strength significantly only for blocks.

The shields doubled up as cutting weapons as well.

He had a seal between his shoulders called 'Iron Blue Bubble seal' that activated automatically if it sensed an object or a person coming at him too quickly for him to raise his shields. The bubble shield was formed out of a combination of his Wind and Water chakra into multiple seal complex stacked into a complex seal, this meant that the attacker or object bounced off the bubble on contact or, if it was slow enough, the object would enter but would basically seem like it was swimming in a pool of thick syrup. This was the seal that saved him when the one tail threw him into a wall with a massive back hand swipe. He could personally activate the seals to cushion his falls if he wanted to.

Naruto, while he was at Wave, commissioned a local tailor there to sew a set of his usual baggy black pants and blue and black long sleeved shirt, throwing in a blue scarf in case he ever wound up in a desert for some reason. The young tailor, greatly appreciative for his country being liberated and the economy being revived successfully, didn't question the fact that Daku, known as Part of Waves saviour, obeyed the beck and call of the young boy. Correctly assuming he was the real leader and addressing him as such. Naruto had already reconciled with himself that if information about his leadership status ever came out he was confident that his seals would help him escape Konoha, and Zabuzza, Haku and Daku would escort him to Wave.

The blonde seal master was fairly good at throwing punches and kicks, but he didn't know any taijutsu style. But that fact didn't perturb him because his whole body and his clothes were riddled with so many secrets, counter attacks, defensive seals in case the front line defence seals failed and booby traps. Just to be careful, he altered his 'X' contact seal and Daku's 'creation' scroll so he would be able to send out a 'tingle' to Daku if he was ever in trouble and vice versa. The loyal dark shadow would follow this beacon to him, with lightning fast speed, and come to his aid.

Yes, Naruto didn't necessarily need a guard anymore, Daku included seeing as he was currently in Wave administering in his steed, but if Jiraiya wanted to humour himself then he would allow the man have his fun. Besides, he was getting to see other places out of all of this, which was fine with him.

Unknown to the pair of travellers, a pair of yellow eyes watched them walk towards Tanzuki town. Zetsu looked fixedly at the younger traveller, Naruto. He had witnessed his fight with the one tails and he was fairly certain that he could have taken the Sand Tanuki down sooner if he wanted to. The boy was much more skilled in his craft than he had anticipated, wrongly judging at first that he would drop fuinjutsu after seeing how complicated it was. He would have to somehow convince Nagato to come after him early. With those parting thoughts Black Zetsu melted into the ground.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Root headquarters,_

 _Konoha,_

A female donning a featureless white mask knelt down in front of a man. The man wore a formal kimono that covered his whole left side and his feet, leaving his right arm, wrapped up in bandages, to hold his cane. Half of the man's face was wrapped in bandages as well. The female didn't quiver under Danzo's intense stare as she waited for permission to speak,

"Mole, report," Danzo droned,

"Wave is a thriving country with abundance in natural resources and a growing economy which is still reviving from what Gato had done to it. The ninja there are of unbelievable strength and the walls defences, as well as the defence on the water boundary is almost impossible to bypass, that is why I am the only one to survive. There seemed to be a lightning field that sprang up around us after we touched the walls and I jumped out in time, my comrades were fried before I could cast a Wind jutsu. I apologize for this, Danzo-sama,"

"I shall punish you later, Mole. What about the leadership there? Do you know who leads Wave?"

"No, Danzo-sama, the people were very closed lipped about it and the Wave Leader's tower is fortified with too many defence seals, ones I couldn't even find, so I couldn't infiltrate there without dying,"

"This mysterious leader that is reviving that cesspool is very good at what he does and already having strong ninjas under his command…that is very… _questionable_ ," he mumbled to himself, "the probability of infiltrating again, tell me with all honesty, is it possible?"

Mole was silent for a few minutes, "no, Danzo-sama, as I was leaving disguised as a worker I saw someone looking over the seals behind the walls and a few other people entering the water, probably to check the seals there. I think they are improving the defence. Wave is too strong defensively to infiltrate, Danzo-sama,"

The man refrained from glaring at her, _'How are you so prepared, Wave leader?'_ he swivelled around, "report to Fu for your punishment. Dismissed, _'I shall have your remarkable strength, Wave, not now though; I will prepare my men to take it from you and make it mine. For Konoha.'_

Mole silently stood up and marched down the semi dark tunnels of Root headquarter; her mind was in a blaze. Naruto had personally set this mission to her, seeing how she had sworn her loyalty to him, as well as the three others. She was the most skilled out of the three reformed Root ANBU, which mean that the probability for her to survive his defences and his trackers was higher than the rest, so Danzo would believe she survived. To prove her loyalty to Naruto she had willingly asked to be put under a loyalty seal. The difference with the one she had by Danzo was that she wasn't in her own right senses, doing things blindly for the War Hawk, but since she had willingly asked for a Loyalty seal from Naruto she knew what she was doing.

The boy had put a mind block seal in her in case a Yamanaka was ever to search her memories, sifting through the false ones instead of the real ones. That seal was still very experimental; seeing as there weren't any Yamanaka available to test the seal on. The boy had assured her that the seal would at least make it very difficult for her thoughts to be read or her actions to be influenced.

Mouse didn't think she would ever look up to anyone younger than herself but Naruto had broken that down with his show of fuinjutsu mastery and his command over the single most strongest creature, Daku, who was much stronger than anything she had ever seen in her nineteen years of living and her fourteen years of serving in Root. The boy, as a reward for her loyalty, sealed off her pain nerve endings, giving her the key to switch it back on if she ever wanted. This meant that she would never feel pain ever again unless she really wanted to, something she would forever be grateful to 'Naruto-sama' for doing.

The young fuinjutsu genius had promised to liberate her from Root if he had gotten all the information he needed.

Her fellow reformed Root ninja were back in Wave. Naruto had set Rat to look over his academy as a teacher and the headmaster. He still very much wary of the ninja since the man spilled the beans so quickly. He placed a body lock seal on the back of his neck if he ever raised his hand to beat a comrade with the tattoo given to all that were allowed to visit Wave and all of Wave's citizens. The seal was connected directly to his brain, so if he was going to punish a student justly it won't stop him. He had also placed a parole seal under the first seal, which blocked him off from certain places like the DARK headquarters, Wave's equivalent to ANBU, also to the S rank section of the library, Wave's water and electricity distribution centres and to Waves main forge. The man, feeling truly repentant to all he had done against his will, tried his best to prove to Naruto that he meant no harm. Teaching the academy students all he knew which were at their current level. He also willingly asked for a loyalty seal.

The other reformed Root ninja, Frog, was more trusted than Rat since he also willingly asked for a loyalty seal to be placed on him. Frog was left in charge of sorting through official documents before they were brought to Daku or Naruto. He was also added into the active ninja roster and is being given B rank missions, supervised by Zabuzza. He was fairly content with his position in Wave. What all the reformed Root ninja had in common was that they didn't want to disappoint Naruto.

Naruto didn't want to send Rat back as a spy for him because he still didn't trust him not to squeal. Mole, which the most ironic name in the world, was trusted enough with the mission. She was mid-jounin in taijutsu and speed, but with her pain nerves shut down and her ninjutsu prowess she was high jounin. This was seen when she beat both of her comrades in a fair fight.

She nodded silently to Fu Yamanaka and walked into Root's Conditioning room, a place where those who failed in their missions or didn't perform satisfactorily were punished mentally or physically. She didn't flinch when the solid wood door slammed shut behind her.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Wave country,_

Daku, in full Leader of Wave clothes, was currently at his (Naruto's) desk going through permissions to start constructing or re-modelling various buildings in the country. He hummed and looked through a document asking for another hotel to be built for visiting fishermen and farmers, then he looked at Wave's general accounts and nodded in thought, stamped the approval for construction to begin and brought out another document,

"Frog?"

The ninja named Frog was seated on a smaller desk beside Daku's (Naruto's) reading through the growing mission reports of Zabuzza, the Demon brothers, Haku and Daku shadow clones. His plain mask was off to reveal his pudgy facial features and a large green birth mark over his left eye and almost over his cheek, it was because of this he was named Frog by Danzo. He had a slim, average body build, going against the thought that he was fat. He wore a camo green ninja pants and a black vest under his official chunin flak jacket. The flak jacket was a light blue with black lines on the shoulders and a large Wave symbol on the back. The collar wasn't high, high collars were for jounin.

The man looked at his leader with wide, surprised eyes before he stuttered out a response, "y-y-yes Daku-sama,"

The loyal dark shadow leaned back in his comfy chair with his head propped up on his right fist, "do you think building a mall in the centre of Wave is a good idea?" he turned to Frog,

"U-Uhm…"

"Your honest opinion please,"

Frog scratched his cheek and cooled down his heart, "I-I think a mall is a good idea," Daku motioned for him to continue, "if we have a mall traders would have a set place to sell their wares, even if it's raining or the sun is too hot. As well as the added side of a place where not only food and furniture a mall is a good idea."

"What else do you think can be in the mall?"

"Restaurants that can't afford setting up separate buildings, toy shops for children, recreation room for both kids and adults, and more. I'm sure that with the increase in money in circulation the mall would be a very popular nerve centre for Wave,"

Daku looked down at the document and looked over the blue prints for the mall, noticing that there would be room for all the ninja had mentioned and also room for the mall to grow, "you seem very knowledgeable in these sort of things, Frog," he tapped his pen on the document,

"I-uh-I saw a mall in Snow country when we were passing through to Hidden Chill during my last mission," he and Haku had been tasked to deliver a batch of security seals to protect her borders that were sealed in a large storage scroll, they also took with them instructions on how to administer them. It was a success with only a small hitch when bandits tried to ambush them just outside Snow country's borders.

Naruto's representative as leader nodded his head and stamped down his approval on the document, again after calculating the loss from Wave's accounts, "I shall be putting you in charge of looking over the builders for this mall, supervising the progress and reporting problems directly to me," he said this as he was writing a note on a scroll, telling the contractor for the mall that Frog was also in charge. Then he wrote a letter to the head fisher man that when the mall was constructed he should tell his people not to bring their fish there, seeing as fish was always best sold near water.

"Thank you sir, I won't disappoint you," the man stood up and bowed,

"I hope not,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _A mile outside Tanzuki town,_

' _How much longer can this man_ _ **talk**_ _?'_ Naruto, with his face a perfect slate, clenched his fists and mechanically kept marching forward, trying his best to ignore the stories Jiraiya was telling him,

"Then I grabbed him by the neck and I said 'little boy, I was a ninja of high calibre before you could walk!' and I slammed him into the ground," he laughed boisterously, "the guy passed out from my awesomeness, of course," Naruto grunted, "hey Gaki," Naruto grunted again and looked at him from the corner of his eyes. They had camped for an hour a while ago; allowing Naruto to rest and begin their trek to the last place Tsunade was located. So far they had passed three towns and Jiraiya had immediately gone to the casinos and asked for the slug Sannin's location. He had to pay off the woman's building debts before he was told. The boy just shrugged all this off, noting that each Sannin had their quirks; Jiraiya was a pervert, Orochimaru like giving children hickeys and apparently Tsunade was a (horrible) gambler.

"Yes?"

"Want to see something cool?" not even waiting for a reply, Jiraiya dramatically whipped out his hand and a blue, spinning ball of chakra began swirling on his hand, "neat huh? It's called the Rasengan, the fourth made this jutsu," he at least thought Naruto's eyes would widen fractionally, he was sorely disappointed when Naruto only pursed his lips and furrowed his eyebrows, "wanna learn it?"

The boy turned and kept walking, "no, I'm good,"

The man face planted straight into the ground, "what!? You don't want to learn this?" he slammed his Rasengan into a tree and smirked proudly when it exploded into splinters. He looked at Naruto and sweat dropped when he saw the boy had his shield up to block the wood shrapnel, "that was only less than half its power, y'know,"

Naruto dropped his shield and crossed his arms, "this is like Kakashi's chidori, correct?"

"This is better than the chidori, Kakashi even admitted it himself!"

The blonde seal master scratched his chin and again pursed his lips in thought, "I think can create a Fuin-ninjutsu equal to or even better than that-"

"What!? Impossible! It took Minato years to create _and_ master the Rasengan. What makes you think you can one up him?" Naruto shrugged and kept walking, Jiraiya ran up to him, "won't it just be easier to _learn_ it?"

"Why do you insist on teaching me? I just said I was fine without it," the man mumbled something childishly and scuffed his feet, "I thought so,"

"A bet then. If you make something 'equal to or better than' the Rasengan I would make you my apprentice, if you lose you have to learn the Rasengan _and_ become my apprentice,"

"A better bet. If I win you leave me alone, and if I lose, I learn the Rasengan, agreed,"

"I'll take what I can get," both shook hands and walked into Tanzuki town. As per the norm concerning their mission they searched out a large casino and looked around. Naruto poked for Jiraiya's attention when his eyes got drawn to waitresses behind and pointed at a large busted, blonde woman sitting alone in a booth.

"Is that her?"

"Let's go and check," they pushed through the crowded casino and stood over the hazy eyed woman,

"look I told ya, I don't have your money…" she slurred as she looked before all signs of being drunk immediately cleared out, "oh…it's you…"

The white haired Sannin slipped into a seat across from her and patted the seat next to him for Naruto to do so, but the boy chose to swipe a chair from beneath a drunk man and sat down, "glad to see you still love me, Tsu-chan," he grinned at her, wincing when the lady stomped on his foot, "owie,"

"What are you doing here, Jiraiya?" she tilted a bottle of sake into her mouth, "and who the hell is he?" she briefly at Naruto,

"I'm not sure you're aware but Sarutobi-sensei is dead,"

"Dead huh," her shoulders sagged tiredly, "another one bites the dust,"

"He wanted you to become Godaime,"

She snorted rudely, "over my dead body,"

"…what happened to you, Tsunade-chan?"

"I can see now is what happened," she snapped and glared at Jiraiya, "I lost Nawaki and Dan to shinobi life and now sensei is gone!" she stood up sharply,

The toad Sannin kept his cool, "they all died honourably, protecting what they loved. They died protecting us, Tsunade-chan,"

She slowly sat back down on her seat and chugged down a mouth full of sake, "they didn't have to…there was nothing to protect, the will of fire died with Hashirama-oji-san,"

"the will of fire still burns bright in the leaf, it would always burn bright as long as there are people present to look out for the future," the woman snorted again, "you really let yourself go, Tsunade-chan," the woman merely shrugged and her eyes railed back to Naruto,

"Enjoying the show, brat?"

Naruto nodded and spared a barely visible smile for her, "yes, very much so,"

Tsunade slammed her fists down on the table and glared harshly at the young boy, "you've got a lot of nerve, brat,"

"So I've been told," was the sharp reply,

"You think you're so smart…you think you're so confident," Naruto shrugged and nodded,

"Yes. Jiraiya is right, Tsunade-sama, the history books say you're a powerful konouchi able to level mountains with a single punch. Now though…I'm thinking the history books have hyped up something that died a long time ago,"

The woman stood up sharply, "I'll have you know I'm stronger than ever,"

Naruto rolled her eyes and sipped a glass of water her had ordered, "I doubt that-"

The woman slapped his glass of water out of his hand, smashing it against the wall of the booth, "you are being very disrespectful, brat,"

"Knocking my glass of water out of my hand is disrespectful, Tsunade-sama," he looked at where the broken shards of his glass cup lay on the ground, "and it is very rude. I advise you to cool down before you do something you regret,"

"What can a brat like you do?" she was obviously trying, and failing, to rile him up, "I bet I can beat with just my finger," she wagged her index finger near his face,

"I'd rather not-"

"Oh yeah, ya scared of being beat up by a _girl_ ," Naruto wanted to point out that she was a _woman,_ not a girl, and that it was the alcohol in her system that was talking. He looked at the woman, who was smirking cockily, and smirked lightly,

"I haven't exercised my legs in a while. If I win you follow us back to Konoha and become the Godaime,"

"And if I win _**you**_ pay off _**all**_ my debts," dark shadows crept out from under her bangs, "and I mean _**all**_ of my debts,"

Thinking the boy didn't have any money, Jiraiya chose to finally enter into the conversation, "Tsu-chan, I don't think-"

"It's fine, I agree," Naruto pushed away from the table and motioned with both arms to the casinos exit. The slug Sannin humph'd and walked briskly out, followed closely by the toad Sannin and Naruto. The woman pushed a smaller girl, who was holding a pig, back out with her just as she entered,

The two stood a few feet apart across an empty street, it seemed the residents sensed a fight, "you got jelly legs or something? Come at me brat," she proudly crossed her arms, leaving a single index finger in the air,

"Why don't you come at me? 'You scared'?" the boy oddly imitated her, trying, and successfully, riling up the drunken Sannin. The woman growled and ran at the boy with mid chunin speed, with her right pointer finger leading the attack,

"Tsunade-sama, no!" Shizune yelled after her attacking mistress,

Under the seal masters baggy pants a spiral seal flared to life on his calves and his blue rectangular shield spiralled out of his right forearm. The woman, with an almighty flick, smashed her finger against the ridiculously sturdy shield. Not even a speck of dust kicked up and silence fell all around.

"He-he-he-" Shizune blubbered quietly with Jiraiya,

"He _blocked_ her…impossible…"

Behind his blue shield and his seal enhanced forearms Naruto allowed his smirk to widen minutely as he saw the shock dawn on the slug Sannin. He lifted his left leg, a clump of earth over his foot, and he swung it at her, hitting her left arm and destabilizing her. She tried to get her bearing back to her and flicked the boy again when he ran at her with his shield. The 'Tree roots seals' only prevented him from skidding seven feet away from her. The ground broke up after his feet passed over.

Naruto squinted his eyes and blocked another flick, jabbing her stomach with his free hand and pushing her back with his seal enhanced forearm. As she slid back he briefly deactivated the seals on his calves and leaped into the air and brought the edge of his shield to the ground. The seal creation shook the ground on impact and cracked up to the woman. Tsunade grit her teeth and smashed a finger flick to the ground to counter the attack, this being successful. She lifted her eyes and leaped away from a silver rope coming at her straight from Naruto's free forearm. It snaked after her despite her dodges, driving her up the side of a building. She flipped on the wall, over the rope…and her leg was caught by the rope.

The silver snake rope hit her savagely on the ground and whipped her into the side of a building, leaving a body imprint and bashed her against the rocky ground again. The rope quickly wound around her and _squeezed_.

Tsunade coughed and struggled against the fuinjutsu enhanced ropes but this was a futile attempt. The younger seal master harshly dragged her to him and held the edge of his shield to her neck, pressing it in to show her just how sharp it was, "I win, we'll pick you up tomorrow," he unwound the rope from her not too gently and nodded in satisfaction when she spun in the air and landed on the ground with her eyes unfocused and dizzy.

The boy coolly walked past his gaping audience to a near hotel. He didn't really care if the toad sage helped his team mate pick up her pride; he just wanted to go and eat some food and maybe start up with that Fuin-ninjutsu he had bet with Jiraiya. He got his own room and ordered some room service. An hour into his research and he was done with his lunch of ramen and we now find Naruto sipping a cup of green tea and tracing his pointer finger over a seal for a basic storage scroll before he heard a knock on the door. He furrowed his eyebrow when the custom alarm seal he slapped on the door told him that there were _two_ people waiting outside the door.

If it was Jiraiya then the other person must be Tsunade, but if so then why wasn't the smaller girl with them, why was it that one had Water affinity and the other Fire affinity. Jiraiya had Fire affinity but Tsunade had _Earth_ affinity…

The people at the door knocked again and he stood up to answer, tucking his arm behind his back. He opened the door and kept his face blank when he saw who were behind it.

"Hello, Naruto-kun," Itachi said calmly, Kisame grinned beside his partner, "would you be so kind as to come with us?" Naruto wasn't looking at him though, thankfully, he was looking at Kisame and the shivering bandages on his back,

He cursed quietly, "…great…"

 **Authors note**

 **So? How was it? Did I do well?**

 **It may seem like a coincidence how Yakumo was found but think of it like a female version of Naruto (in this story).**

 **Believe me when I say this, Naruto is** _ **not**_ **over powered. I agree that all the seals he has on his person are very…powerful…but he still can't move past mid chunin speed and strength without the seals augmenting his body parts help. He doesn't have enough experience to predict his opponent's moves. He isn't immune to the sharingan and he doesn't have any seals that negate the byakugan. But he is definitely growing, meaning he would soon reach S rank if he wanted.**

 **Daku didn't have any fight scene in this chapter to show that he isn't all muscle; he has an outstanding memory and leadership skills.**

 **In all honesty Wave country is growing very, very well. There's more money in the economy and more visiting traders from places besides the villages he is allied to.**

 **I hope I didn't under power Tsunade, remember she was limiting her attacks to finger flicks. Naruto could go all out (or as hard as he wanted). He has pretty much prepared seals for any circumstance he would come up against, monstrous strength included.**

 **What going to go down with Itachi, Kisame and Naruto? Want to find out, you have to keep reading.**

 **What do you all think? I really like to know,**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Please review,**

 **Foy.**


	9. Chapter 9

**Thank you all for your wicked awesome reviews! Keep them coming; they are very much appreciated. :D**

 **Shout out to 'TigrezzTail' I agree with you completely.**

 **To 'Guest': I... don't know what you were reading but... I'm not sure how explaining the seals was awkward :/ Plus, it's not like he had a sharingan user ready at hand to test seals on to see if he could negate the sharingan. Remember that Mouse had a Mind block seal to protect her from a Yamanaka mind probe, but even he agreed that the seal was purely experimental, besides, he didn't know that he would EVER go up against Itachi. He doesn't have byakugan negating seals because he has byakugan negating defenses. I would add the negating seals for each, even though the sharingan negating seal would be purely experimental.**

 **Shout out to 'Ezeakel': You have been wicked awesome for the past few chapters and your insight into this story is amazing. If your still reading know that i appreciate it very much. :D**

CHAPTER 9

The first thing Naruto did after seeing the infamous 'Bloody Uchiha traitor' and the 'Zero tailed beast' was to slam the door shut in their faces,

"Well that was rude," Kisame grunted, "Do you want to break the door down or should I?"

"Be my guest," Itachi shrugged,

Kisame pulled his fist back and let it fly onto the door; a loud gong sound resonated immediately from contact,

"It seems we have a seal master on our hands,"

"It seems so," Kisame agreed and grabbed the sentient sword on his back, he stuck it onto the door Samehada began visibly sucking out Naruto's blue chakra from the door before the door itself crumbled in on itself, "well that's that," he willed his sword to reduce in size and smooth over as he waltzed into the hotel room, only to find the window open and the flowing white curtain blowing inside.

"He ran away," Itachi said blankly,

Kisame grunted, "well let's go after him, Samehada can sniff him out," both ninja jumped out of the window,

Currently Naruto was barrelling as fast as his legs could carry him to where Tsunade and Jiraiya were last found, hoping to kami that they were still there. _'Why did it have to be Hoshigaki Kisame?'_ the streets again were empty, sensing the fight that was definitely going to come. He ran to where the Sannin and the younger girl were last found and cursed foully when he didn't find them. He had also been sending hurried tingles into the 'X' seal on his belly. _'Where's that man when you need him?'_ It just _had_ to be a seal master's natural predator that had come to kidnap him. He groaned again, _'why did it have to be Kisame?'_ if he managed to come out of this unharmed he swore to himself that he would have a contingency plan against the man; he didn't ever plan on meeting the man but fate seemed to have a grudge on him.

"It's very rude to leave when guests are at your place, Naruto-kun," a smooth voice said from a few feet behind him, he turned around and refrained from looking at Itachi's eyes in case his sharingan were activated. He had read all he could about the bloody Uchiha traitor and had found out that the man rarely turned off his sharingan, and that the sharingan could cast mind numbing illusions. He wasn't too good with illusions, seeing as he now has three times more chakra than the late Sandaime and still growing. He was at least glad that he had an excellent counter against any man's raw speed. His blue iron bubble could effectively keep Daku out from penetrating, crumbling only after many chakra (and Daku) enhanced blows.

"yeah, it's also rude to leave through your window," was Kisame's snarky addition to what Itachi had said, his sentient sword giggled in his iron grasp, "I know right?" he agreed to whatever Samehada had said,

Naruto chose to keep his cool for as long as possible until Daku appeared, he would literally give them his all, "what do you want with me?"

"You don't need to know that, come peacefully or we would have to resort to violence," Itachi droned,

"And if you want to go violent, I'm going to shave your legs off from under you," Kisame said with a chuckle,

"I'm not going anywhere," he flew through three hand seals and muttered, _"Ninja art: fuinjutsu: Child of paper chaos,"_ the boy threw his arms out, palms facing his opponents, and paper flew out of his sleeves like shuriken, whirring violently fast to the duo.

 _Boom!_

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Daku's head snapped up when he felt a tingle in his stomach, then the tingle turned into a violent hum, _'Naruto-sama needs help!'_ he stood up, surprising Frog, and dropped his cloak on his chair, "I need to head out, Frog,"

Frog snapped to his feet, "where are you going Daku-sama, you still have a meeting scheduled with the civilian council in three hours," he wouldn't believe if Daku said he needed a break; for the length of time he had known the enigma Daku _**never**_ needed a break,

"Naruto-sama is in trouble, I'll be back soon but if I'm not here on time re-schedule the meeting. This is much more important,"

Frog bowed, "I understand Daku-sama, and do you want me to come along?"

Here Daku chuckled, "you won't be able to keep up, Frog," Frog nodded in agreement. The dark shadow leaped out of the window of Naruto's office and jumped from roof to roof till he was at the main gate. He had signed to Haku and Zabuzza, who were just coming in after a mission that he would be back soon. The dark shadow held up his right hand in one handed ram seal and spiral seals on the back of his hands and heels glowed eerily and shattered, making it seem that Daku was levitating off the ground before their very eyes. With a loud crack like lightning Daku blinked out of sight.

"Wow… he always keeps surprising me…" Haku murmured, fingering his blue chunin flak jacket idly,

"I'm not," Zabuzza grunted, donning Wave's jounin flak jacket, "he _beat_ me remember?" Haku giggled.

With how fast Daku was flying through the forest he could basically use tree leaves and blades of grass as foot holds. He zigzagged past trees and bushes as they increased in number, not even brush either. He hummed and flew past konoha's border and blazed path where Naruto and Jiraiya had passed through, he allowed his 'gut feeling' to lead him to his master. His eyes caught sight of Naruto's fight with the Akatsuki members.

Naruto leaped away dexterously when Samehada was whipped out of the blazing inferno, the sword shivered and sucked up the fire and spat it back out to Naruto, the boy defended this with his rectangular blue shield, making the ball of fire bounce back to Kisame. Itachi was nowhere to be seen.

Kisame grinned and sped over to the young boy with his sword raised in the air to shave some skin off Naruto, he furrowed his eyebrows when Naruto slapped his palms together and yelled his next defensive-offensive attack, _"push!"_ the blue iron bubble hummed dangerously around him and expanded away from his body, shaking the ground and throwing the missing ninja back harshly, the blue bubble came back to Naruto. Daku seemingly appeared on a building and leaped down at Kisame.

"Neat trick," the man flipped to his feet and pulled his sword back to whip it at Naruto, to suck out his chakra, but had to cross Samehada across his body to block an attack from Daku. The dark shadows arm was immediately shaved off and the chakra tube filled with chakra was immediately sucked out, but he wasn't worried; he jumped back and reformed his arm quickly, "who are you?"

The dark shadow didn't answer instead he raised his arms and began firing stone stakes at Kisame, forcing the man to run lengthwise away from the attacks. He found Itachi behind Naruto, poking the barrier seal around him and jumping back when Naruto slapped his palms together again. _'This kid is good!'_ His distraction cost him; a Daku rock clone gripped his feet from underground, tripping him. The S rank ninja cursed and struggled against the iron grasp, allowing Daku to blur to him and kick his sword arm's shoulder without restraint. A loud bone chilling crack resonated around the clearing. Kisame bit his tongue to keep the yell in but he did swing his sword at Daku limply with his intent to shave the man in half and suck out all his chakra.

The pesky rock clone kept his hands on his feet, holding him in place but he didn't care. His was in a rage, his eyes were maniacally wide as he swung his sword around and willed it to stretch after Daku. He was using his non-sword arm to do this.

His partner, Itachi, was still busy trying to bypass Naruto's 'Ultimate defence'; he was not very successful though.

"Itachi!"

The stoic man sighed quietly and turned around, looking away from Naruto's blank but smug face, "hello, foolish little brother,"

"I'm here to kill you Itachi!" Sasuke screamed and ran at his older brother with a chidori, Itachi masterfully bent out of the way and allowed the attack to smash again Naruto's blue shell, frowning minutely when only a small crack appeared and disappeared immediately, just as if it was never there. His sharingan told him that the barrier was made completely out of the boy's chakra, powered by a seal on his back. He grabbed his brother's outstretched arm and bent it behind the boys back, "you were always too weak,"

"I'll kill you!" the last loyal Uchiha hissed and struggled against the hold, "let me go and fight me damn it!"

"You will never beat me, foolish little brother," he thwacked the back of Sasuke's head and poked a nerve on his neck when Sasuke was about to snap with foam dribbling out of his mouth. Itachi let go of the arm in his hold and watched with grim acceptance as the boy fell bonelessly to the ground. He raised his head and scowled lightly when he saw Jiraiya and Tsunade running to them. He looked over his shoulder and frowned when he saw his partner, Kisame, glued to the ground and wildly swinging his sword after the dark shadow. Daku blurred out of sight again and appeared in front of Kisame, smashing his fist against the man's chest and flinging him far into the town with the rock clone still tightly gripping his feet.

Daku disappeared after him just as the two Sannin arrived.

Jiraiya looked down at the unconscious Sasuke and at the stoically smug Naruto, then to Itachi, "what are you doing here, Itachi?" he crossed his arms and Tsunade mirrored his posture,

"Just paying a visit to Naruto-kun, I'll be on my way now…" he trailed off as Naruto slapped his palms together again and the boys blue bubble flung him straight to the Sannin. Not even wanting to take his chance against _two_ legendary Sannin, Itachi's sharingan eyes spun wildly and melded together to form the shuriken like Mangekyo sharingan, _"Amaterasu,"_ he closed an eye and super-hot black flames exploded out of his other eye, spiralling to the Sannin duo. The Sannin leaped away from the attack and looked back to where they last say Itachi, but glared silently when they didn't find him there. He curiously looked down at the remnants of the curious looking black flames and sealed it away for later study.

Tsunade was glaring down at Naruto. Naruto was looking up at her.

"What?" the blonde boy said,

"How were you able to hold off two S rank missing ninja?"

"Fuinjutsu, just like how I beat you," the woman's hands clenched so hard he knuckles cracked,

"I was holding back, brat," she tried to keep her cool but just looking at Naruto's bored face seemed to enrage her,

Naruto waved her off with a flippant hand gesture, "whatever you say," the boy seemed to getting some sort of pleasure from getting her angry; her responses to each, no matter how small, were always hilarious, "…baa-chan…"

Jiraiya gasped in horror, "oh no he didn't…"

"Why you little-" she reached forward to strangle the boy but the toad sage pulled her back, "I am at my prime damn it!"

"Sure, sure whatever," he turned around and went back to his hotel room, making sure to refortify it with seals.

With Kisame and Daku it didn't look too good for the S rank nuke-nin. After he had crash landed into the ground and shakily got back to his feet he was the thrown away from an attack Daku had just perfected. The dark shadow ran at him with half of his true speed and allowed his legs to leave the ground, tucking his knees to his chest. Despite not running anymore he still flew through the air like a missile and nailed Kisame in the face. Naruto called it the **'Cannon ball'** seeing as _technically_ Daku was in a ball but he was travelling through the air horizontally at about 170mp/h.

Blood spurted out of Kisame's mouth after impact but he still stubbornly got to his feet, with Samehada still in his iron grasp. When he saw Daku cock his head to the side in confusion, seeing as the shark man was still alive/conscious, he whipped his sword at him. The shuddering sword carved a deep grove after Daku as it chased him. The dark shadow flipped backwards over the sword and, mid-air, he shot two stone spikes at Kisame. The man pulled his hands out of the path of the stone attacks and scowled when he saw them break through a residential buildings wall. The man summoned his sword back to him and was about to flash through a few seals to destroy the insistent bug but a firm hand on his shoulder stopped him, instinctively knowing who it was.

"We have to leave; the Sannin are on their way," Kisame remained in place, glaring at Daku with all the molten hate in his body. Daku took a strong stance, expecting the man to capitalize on his hate, but hummed sourly when both leaped onto a roof and disappeared,

"I'm going to _find_ him…" Kisame started, squeezing the handle of his sword painfully, "and I'm going to _**kill**_ him…" he grunted in pain when he felt some of his broken ribs shift inside and lightly poked his lungs. In his limp and broken hand was Samehada so Itachi could help his partner run-walk with the other arm over his shoulder,

Itachi sighed lightly, "I know,"

Daku shrugged and got down into a starting position for a sprint, grasping the ground with his hands and leaped forward, disappearing when his feet left the ground.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto couldn't sleep much that night.

He chose to only sleep for two hours, as per the norm, and used the rest of the night to studying his level nine training scroll and picking out seals to break down. All he had on his mind was creating an effective attack equal to or surpassing the Rasengan. The young seal master reached forward and grabbed a transparent sheet of paper and drew a standard storage seal on it, then he drew another seal on another transparent sheet of paper for an explosion, then a clean circle around it to show that it was also a contained explosion. He tapped his chin with his brush and riffled through the training scroll more ideas. He sighed when he didn't find anything too helpful, so he resolved to break seals apart and create simple seals to combine into a complex seal.

Naruto took a deep breath and envisioned the effect he wanted to create with his seal, he began drawing chakra affinity storage seals and a seal to mix the affinities together then he drew a circle over each affinity storage to show that they were to be separate then a thick line connecting them together and to the centre to show that they could be combined through controlled effort. The ink he used glowed a soft blue and showed the tiny, barely visible seals that were in each stroke. He took the other two transparent papers with seals on them and placed them gently over the multi-affinity paper, the seals glowed a soft red and Naruto switched them so the chakra storage could be under the affinity seal and the explosive seal could be at the top. It glowed a soft blue and he smiled widely. He then took out another transparent sheet of paper and began constructing another seal for containment, simply to contain the full brunt of the attack until it reached its target and let loose all its fury.

He put that over at the top of the complex seal and nodded again when it turned blue, showing that the combination was correct. He hunched over the seal and put both of his index fingers on opposite corners, "here goes nothing," he braced himself for an explosion but only a small plume of smoke erupted over him. He coughed and waved the smoke out of his face, "much better than I expected," he looked down at the seal and frowned, "something is missing…" yes the simple seals mixed together successfully and the strokes were now in a completely larger but still different seal, it still didn't look…finished…

He scratched his cheek and ran a hand through his pale blonde hair, trying to figure out just what seemed amiss from his custom creation. He added in a custom made seal to increase the speed of his attack, the density of his attack and the raw strength of the attack but there was still something _off_ about the complex seal. The seal was flawlessly made, he could bet his kidneys that it worked very well and he knew as a fact that the attack would be very much unexpected. He tapped his brush on the seal in thought before his head snapped up and he began frantically, but at the same time, carefully tracing his fingers over the seal until the multi-affinity seal appeared at the top. He then drew a small circle where each affinity connected and allowed himself to laugh quietly. The multi-affinity seal melted back into the fairly large complex seal.

The 12 year old boy slumped back into his chair and closed his eyes, _'now where do I test this…?'_ he cracked an eye open and saw that the sun was just peeking out of the horizon, _'morning already?'_ he got out of his chair and stretched, making sure to do some lunges and squats focusing on his dead-but-still-very-much-alive leg. He went into the shower and took his bath then got dressed in his black baggy pants but a different deep blue shirt and black crisscrossing lines with a white Uzumaki whirlpool on the shoulders. He rolled his shoulders experimentally to see if he could still throw his arms out quick enough or raise his shields fast enough. He nodded when it still fit his actions. He was about to reach over and grab his new seal until he felt a small shudder go through him and he sighed tiredly, "one day…just one day of peace…that's all I ask,"

The seal master grabbed his newest custom complex and sealed it in his wrist before he left the room; he didn't have any bags to lug around seeing as he had all his possessions sealed into storage seals on his arms and shoulders. He followed the small tracking seal he placed on Jiraiya to the room directly opposite his own, he suspected that the man knew he had a tracking seal on him but didn't want to remove it, maybe because he hoped the boy was warming up to him. He didn't know it was because the boy wanted to know exactly where the man was in case he ever got them into trouble. His mind went back to a memory he had in the first town they entered; a gaggle of prostitutes surrounded the Sannin, leaving Naruto to fend for himself and search the whole casino for the slug Sannin. The sweet temptresses lured the man to the back of the casino and robbed him blind before he could slur out words for them to stop. The kisses and licks to his neck and body left the man so flustered that he lay in the trash can the women dumped him in for hours until Naruto just managed to track him down.

He knocked on the door and waited patiently for a full ten minutes for the man to answer but frowned when he wasn't answered, he knocked again but it still wasn't answered. The boy put his ear to the door and listened in for any sound, there wasn't any. He shook his head in disappointment and rammed his shoulder into the door five times before it caved in after him. His eyes roved through the dark room before he spotted the conked out form of the legendary Sannin half slumped on a bed.

Naruto walked up to the man and crossed his arms, "wake up," the man groaned and slurred out some incoherent words, Naruto kicked the man's leg, "wake up, Tsunade is trying to escape,"

"Who…?" the man rolled onto the ground and rubbed his face, "what did I _do_ yesterday?" Naruto shrugged and Jiraiya staggered to his feet but he swayed and hat to grab hold of the wall, "something feels wrong…" he furrowed his eyebrows and groaned again, "my chakra feels off,"

"You went out drinking with Tsunade-sama and she poisoned your chakra network," Naruto summarised correctly, "what did you expect from the woman that doesn't want anything to do with Konoha, and is going to be made _Hokage_ of said village?" the young boy pinched his nose in irritation, "why do you keep getting yourself into trouble, Jiraiya-sama," the man had the decency to look sheepish, him too remembering their experience in Rilke town, the first town they entered.

"You said Tsunade is trying to escape?" he tried to change the subject and Naruto obliged with a roll of his eyes,

"Yes, can you run?"

"I can but my chakra control is shot to hell,"

"The poison would wear off with time I guess, but we have to make do with what we have,"

"Lead the way, Gaki," the boy jogged to the hotel lobby and stopped at the receptionist's desk,

"We would like to sign out," he dropped his room key as well Jiraiya's on the desk and slid it to the woman, "your services here have been excellent, by the way,"

"Thank you Naruto-sama, would you be visiting again?" the petite receptionist asked as she gave the boy a clip board for him to sign off his name under the 'leaving early' entry and took it back when Jiraiya too signed his name on; seeing as they were leaving hours before schedule,

Naruto scratched his cheek and allowed a small chuckle to come out, he leaned to the woman and with a secret smirk he whispered, "When I'm passing through," the woman 'oh'd' in understanding and gave him a discreet thumbs up. The boy waved and walked to the door with the toad Sannin,

"You're being awfully secretive Gaki,"

"We're all entitled to our secrets, Jiraiya-sama. She's going through the east exit so straight ahead," they ran full tilt to the gate there.

With Tsunade, the woman had most possessions on her but even still the younger black haired girl had more to carry, "Tsunade-sama why are we running again; you agreed to go back to Konoha," she huffed in strain as she lugged around a large bag on her back, two sleeping bags under her arms, the pig, Tonton, in his carrier and a map in her other hand while at the same time struggling to keep up with her mistress. Tsunade only had a bottle of water in her hand and a bag of money in her other hand which, suspiciously enough, had a toad plastered on its opening flap.

"I'm not going back to Konoha, Shizune,"

"But…but you're dishonouring your deal with that Naruto-kun,"

"I don't care, that boy can go suck a-"

"Tsunade-sama!" Shizune blushed a deep crimson,

"For all I care," the lady finished as if she wasn't interrupted,

"Oh Tsunade, where are you going?" the voice that spoke was silky and smooth with just a hint of condescending slithering out,

"Orochimaru," Tsunade sneered without turning around, "what do you want?"

"Straight to the point, classic Tsunade," the snake Sannin smoothly walked to her, ignoring Shizune as if she was a bug and stood in front of her, making the woman see that he had with him a grey haired teen in large spectacles behind him, "I am in need of your medical expertise,"

"I'm not going to help you, you…snake,"

The man chuckled, making chills go down Tsunade and Shizune's backs, "stubborn as always; I always liked that about you," he stepped forward so he was almost nose-to-nose with her, eliciting a small blush from the woman, he tucked a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear, "but…" he trailed a gentle finger over her cheek, "I wasn't giving you an option…" he turned sideways and allowed the woman to see Kabuto cut his wrist with a kunai, his blood pumping out of his body heavily.

Tsunade froze in horror at the blood she saw, sweat built up on her. Shizune dropped the bags in her arms and took a stance, "stand back! I'm warning you!"

Orochimaru chuckled again, "you're out of your league kid," he grabbed Tsunade by her hair harshly, the woman still being to catatonic to react to anything, and began pulling her after him in the general direction of Hidden Sound, "take care of her Kabuto-kun,"

"With pleasure Orochimaru-sama," the medic ninja said and began walking menacingly to the younger female medic ninja,

The snake Sannin's ears picked up a light whistling; he furrowed his eyebrows and looked around. Kabuto stopped walking and curiously looked at his master. Orochimaru looked up and his eyes widened, "oh sh-" a small blue small landed heavily on him, tearing Tsunade out of his grasp and throwing her away from the shockwave. The man winced and squinted into the blue bubble to see who had just landed _on top_ of him; it felt like he had 200 pounds of weight crushing his chest, nothing he couldn't take but it was still bothersome. He wiggled his arms to his chest and his veins bulged as he pushed the bubble up,

Naruto snorted before he slapped his palms together, _"push,"_ the result of this was the man being dug deeper into the ground and the massive surge of blue chakra tearing up the ground around them, forcing Kabuto and Shizune to run in opposite directions away from it,

"Get off me!" the Sannin, who was still very much alive, yelled; he squinted again and hissed when he saw blonde hair and whiskers, "Naruto…"

The boy actually scratched his cheek in thought, "I'll think about it," but he groaned when the man melted into a mud puddle,

The snake Sannin's rage was palpable. Jiraiya ran up to his female team mate and gently slapped her face to get her look at him, "Tsu-chan, Tsu-chan look at me," he idly kicked Kabuto back when he tried to blind side him,

"I…I…I…" the woman stammered, her eyes looked past the white haired man to the fight ensuing between Naruto and the snake Sannin with the boy having his back to her. The toad Sannin too looked at the match up and clenched his hand in vain effort to control his chakra, he ploughed through a long chain of hand seals,

" _Summoning jutsu!"_ a small plume of smoke burst on the ground in front of him but he groaned in frustration when he saw a tadpole, "aw c'mon!" he cancelled the jutsu,

Naruto blocked a kick with his right forearm shield and shoved the attacker back, swinging his earth clumped legs at Orochimaru as he came at him again. The older man bent away from the leg but didn't anticipate Naruto slapping his palms together, throwing him into a massive rock,

His blood curdling yell was spine tingling, " **stop doing that!** " he leaped out into the air and snakes hissed out of his outstretched right arm darting down dangerously to Naruto. In response Naruto jammed his rectangular shield into the ground so it would remain steady during the harsh onslaught. The boy grit his teeth under the effort to keep the lethal snakes away from him and the feeling of multiple Orochimaru mud clones punching and kicking his visible iron blue bubble. He deduced that a few more minutes of constant attacks and it would crumble under the pressure,

"Jiraiya! Anytime now!" a barely perceived crack appeared on his right side, "Jiraiya!" he really didn't want to call Daku; he had two Sannin and a Sannin's apprentice with him, if the toad sage could snap his partner out of her funk then maybe they would survive today, his tree root seals were working at over time to keep him from sliding back too much against the snake attacks,

"I'm working on it kid!" a small toad burst out of the smoke on his shoulder and he cancelled the jutsu again, "give me a minute!" again, the war veteran kicked Kabuto under his jaw,

Shizune was frantic, she was hesitant to help go up against a Sannin and she didn't know how to snap her mistress out of her funk. She knelt in front of Tsunade and snapped her fingers in front of her eyes but the older woman kept her eyes at Naruto, "he…he's holding him back…"

Using this as a branch to bring her out the younger lady spoke, "yes, yes he's trying to keep him back but he can't do it for long without help,"

"My…help…?" she clenched her fists slowly and lowered her head, "the brat needs my help…" the idea was laughable but she was standing in front of the fight right now,

The girl nodded and continued, "Yes, Orochimaru is too strong to be kept him for much longer and the poison you gave Jiraiya is messing with his chakra control, he needs your strength Tsunade-sama!" Shizune shielded herself and her mistress from the backlash of a massive 'Earth release: Pillars of the harsh underworld'. The jutsu simulated the effect of massive blunt pillars of earth blasting out of the ground and pounding the target repeatedly like pistons. The rocks pounded mercilessly against Naruto's 'Ultimate defence' in conjuncture with the Orochimaru mud clones attacks and the 'Shadow snakes' attack. Naruto roared under the effort of keeping them all away. He couldn't 'push' them away; that would leave him vulnerable for even the slightest of seconds.

"I…"

Naruto dug his free hand into his pockets and withdrew a seal on a very thick piece of paper, "I never thought I'd ever use this…" he gripped the seal with his index and middle finger and yelled, "Jiraiya, start summoning!"

"But my chakra!"

"Just …do it!" and he threw the seal at him, having to do so over his right shoulder. Jiraiya flashed through the seals and just as the seal slapped onto his chest, a loud ticking sound came as the man yelled his jutsu again,

" _Summoning jutsu!"_ the seal, that was shaped into a complex nine sided shape, unfurled just as another chakra smoke plume exploded but this time under him, "now we're talking!"

" **Jiraiya! Why am I here!"** even Orochimaru paused in his onslaught to look up at the massive toad, **"snake summoner!"** he drew his sword out and took a defensive stance,

Naruto tiredly fell onto his knees and let his guard down, allowing his blue shell to keep attacks away. His eyes widened when he heard a sound like a window smashing open before snake slipped inside and bit into his shoulder. The boy grits his teeth and activated his shield, shredding the snake to pieces,

He looked at the bleeding bite wound and winced, "that's gonna sting in the morning,"

" _ **Kit, the snakes poison is working too quickly!"**_ Kurama roared from inside him as he swirled his chakra and expelled it through his hosts body, driving the poison away from his heart and his lungs,

' _How long do I have Kyu?'_ he winced again as his shoulder burned,

" _ **An hour before you lose consciousness,"**_

He put his right hand over the snake bite and it glowed a deep green, _'how about now?'_

' _ **Of course he slowed down his heart,'**_ Kyuubi rolled his eyes, _**"three hours tops,"**_

' _Good enough,'_ he stood up straight and groaned when the bite bubbled. He looked up and met the toad bosses eye,

" **Who's the kid, Jiraiya?"**

"Uzumaki Naruto, but we need to focus on the fight first Gamabunta,"

" **You still owe me a drink!"**

"I'll pay you back later!"

Gamabunta snorted out some smoke from his pipe, **"whatever. Hop on kid,"**

Naruto gratefully leaped onto his head and hissed, "what about Tsunade?"

"Right here!" the slug Sannin yelled from atop the slug boss, Shizune crouched behind her,

"Tsu-chan, you're back!" Jiraiya yelled, "what pulled you out?!"

"Shizune said Orochimaru called me old!" she joked with a playful smirk before her eyes steeled as Manda, the massive snake boss, appeared with his summoner on his head. Kabuto was crouched beside him,

"Just like the good old days," the snake Sannin mumbled with a sly smirk as he watched Naruto's painfully scowled face, "with a little twist,"

"Kid do you have any more of that juice, that felt great," Jiraiya whispered to the boy standing beside him,

"yes but it only works two seconds at a time while you pump as much chakra as possible," he created the seal under the chance that someone close to him would poison his chakra network, it was farfetched but he couldn't be too careful. Now he had to think of how he would negate the sharingan and the byakugan…

He pulled out a fist full, and Gamabunta leaped forward to Manda, the snake ducking the sword stroke but was met with a super human punch to the side of the head courtesy of Tsunade. Manda hissed angrily and wrapped around the massive slug boss,

"Katsuyu, disperse!" the massive slug dispersed into smaller slugs and reassembled metres away from, Tsunade ran up the side of the snake and pulled her hand back and let it fly onto the snake Sannin's cheek, literally caving his face in and flipping away in time to avoid Orochimaru's Kusanagi slash,

She landed back on the reformed slug boss, "how are you holding up brat!"

"I'm fine!" he grunted, "just hurry," Jiraiya snapped his fingers and went through some hand seals, Naruto slapped a seal onto his leg,

" **Fire release: Giant Fire ball technique!"**

On cue Gamabunta began spitting out a thick stream of oil that cross with the fire and ploughed to the snake and its summoner,

" **Earth release: Worlds greatest earth defence,"** the snake boss pumped in a ton of chakra into the style and a dome of earth covered him protectively against the attack,

"How the hell does he know that jutsu!?" Tsunade asked as she again jumped off and smashed her fist against the earth shell; the dome caved and cracked slightly in but was slowly fixing itself again. The woman ducked a chakra scalpel from Kabuto, who had jumped out, and had to flip away repeatedly, "do something idiot!"

"I'm working on it!" he held on as Gamabunta began savagely hacking away at the earth shell, "I bet you wish you knew the Rasengan now Gaki,"

A light bulb literally lit up above Naruto's head, "oh yeah," he spared the hand that was keeping the bleeding from his shoulder at bay and dug it into his pants, pulling out his new seal, "I've got this,"

"What's that?"

"We're about to find out," he shakily got back to his feet and put his legs into strong stances, activating his tree root seals, "step back Gamabunta-sama,"

" **I hope you know what you're doing kid!"** the toad boss exclaimed as he hopped back. As the toad was in the air Naruto grabbed the paper seal by its opposite corners and pumped as much chakra into it as possible, the boy's blue chakra cracked to the centre of the seal and leaked into a seal stroke before the whole seal lit up,

" **Ninja art: Fuinjutsu: Chakra beam!"** a thick beam of blue chakra blasted out of the piece of paper and warped and spun down at the earth dome like it was kami that had sent it down through that meagre piece of paper. The chakra beam bashed against the dome, caving it and before it slipped in and nailed the snake boss on the head so hard it dispelled, leaving Orochimaru to run lengthwise away from the bright blue beam of chakra,

"We need to leave Orochimaru-sama!" Kabuto shouted from across the clearing, trying his best to keep up with the female Sannin and at the same time dodging poison senbon being shot by Shizune. He clenched his fist when a senbon nailed his left calf and Tsunade sent over a devastating upper cut that threw him in the general direction of his master,

Orochimaru glared at his four opponents and grabbed the back of Kabuto's neck as he landed beside him. The boy struggled to his feet and the man let go, "you've won nothing Jiraiya, Tsunade," both just looked at him blankly. The man melted into the ground and Kabuto ran into the forest,

Naruto sighed in relief and slowly sat down, before lying down comfortably.

"Close one huh Gaki?" the boy swayed slightly, "you ok?" Tsunade landed beside them and knelt beside the younger blonde,

"Snake poison. Shizune!" she looked down at the boy and smirked at his current state. The boy had the right side of his shirt ripped off from the snakes acidic bite and blood splotches and dirt stains spotted his shirt and pants, the tips of both his right and middle were bright red, showing that the new seal had at least a small side effect; she touched them and pulled her hand back, they were burning. Shizune knelt beside her and smiled at the boy as she put a delicate hand on his forehead,

"You'll be fine Naruto. You need to rest,"

Naruto nodded and closed his eyes, "start by cutting off the blood flow…" and they began healing Naruto.

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Earth release: Pillars of the harsh underworld: an A rank ninjutsu that was thought to be lost after the second shinobi war. The attack makes use of the user's raw desire to put the target(s) in pain. Strong stone pillars that slant to the target are fired out of the ground and re-inserted and fired back again repeatedly, the last stronger than the first until the target is a bloody smear on a vertical surface. The attack is among the elemental nations 'Dark Ninjutsu', this means that all five major (as well as most of the minor villages) have agreed that the use of this jutsu is to be barred since the user is said to be in a fit of murderous rage.**_

 _ **Earth release: Worlds greatest earth defence: this is a B ran k jutsu with A rank efficiency and strength. It is the world's greatest defence because after being hit with any jutsu it would automatically begin to fix itself with the speed depending largely on the size of the dome. I.e. the larger the dome, the slower the speed it would be fixed and vice versa. It is classified as a B rank solely because of its large chakra consumption and the constant effort of keeping it up. The jutsu, before it would crumble, would cave in then break apart from constant attack. So if Tsunade had kept up her onslaught she would have surely broken it down.**_

 _ **Ninja art: Fuinjutsu: Chakra beam: this is a new Fuin-ninjutsu that has not yet been classified. It takes the users chakra and processes it through the complex seal, mixing and churning it together with explosive components so volatile that if there was no containment for the explosive seal Naruto's hands would be burned off from contact. The chakra beam is a cylindrical attack that makes use of raw strength, chakra density after it had been thoroughly mixed and brutal heat from the explosive seal to deal out damage onto its target. So far only Samehada and the other seven swords of the mist can effectively block this, with a lot of effort. The only known side effect of this seal is that it would make the tips of the fingers turn red with heat, not fatal but still very painful.**_

 **So? How was it? Did I do well?**

 **Hope I didn't under power Kisame, you do remember how strong Daku is right? I agree that (badass) Itachi was totally useless up against Naruto but take not that he didn't want to reveal his Mangekyo just yet.**

 **Tell me what you all think; I'd really like to know,**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Please review,**

 **Foy.**


	10. Chapter 10

**Wowzers! Your reviews and opinions are wicked awesome. Keep them coming if you all don't mind. Oh my MOLLY! I feel awesome right now! I won't let it get to my head guys, so chillax and cool your pants down. XD**

 **I couldn't find the time to send individual responses to all your wicked cool reviews but I'm going to answer them here, if you all don't mind:**

 **Shout out to 'ShinigamiNoKitsune209': thank you bud, I really appreciate your review. AND THANKS FOR YOUR RATING! I'll try and keep it consistent.**

 **To 'Guest': he has to get his affairs in order before he moves out and he also has to make sure Wave's defences aren't too stressed out from keeping Konoha ninja out. Plus, there are still some characters that are blocking (unknowingly) Naruto from leaving. Try and figure out who they.**

 **To 'DALucifer13': it's sad to say Naruto's leg would always be like that. Remember in the first chapter I said that he had what medical chakra couldn't fix, a leg destroyed by demonic chakra even if it had been sucked out by Kyuubi. But that is the main point of this story; Naruto is using his supposed handicap to do things people with full functionality cannot do. Don't you agree? Hope your still reading bud.**

 **To 'TigrezzTail': Daku is pretty much the fastest in the story, a bit under Madara, Obito and maybe Minato, that's a little of how Daku beats his opponents. His strength also plays a part, and his intelligence is another part. And that's what I was hoping for in the fights. Thanks for your review bud.**

 **To 'Guest': dude…you were talking about the sharingan, I thought you meant GENJUTSU alone. Read this chapter if you want to find out the seal against genjutsu, and NO I did not JUST create it, it was in the story since the last chapter. A little insight on how I see the sharingan though; when I think of sharingan I think predicting attacks, then I think of remembering jutsu (besides bloodline jutsu) THEN I think of illusions. Hope your still reading.**

 **To 'DragonPony022': ah man…you've got a long one there…hmmm… OK! From the top…Ok dude, I'm sorry but I can't read through that whole thing AND answer it. I'm lazy like that but let me just say he held Orochimaru back, just barely, but he needed Tsunade and Jiraiya's help to chase him off. Read it again to confirm if you want *shrug* oh and his defence isn't exactly what you'd call 'Unbreakable'; it's HARD to break, as seen when it almost caved under Orochimaru's attacks. Again, you can go back and confirm if you want. OH, and a little tid bit of info about Naruto's blue iron bubble; it can keep things back, but he feels the 'push' of the attack on his defences, that's why he has his tree root seals. So, if he is attacked from all sides he'll feel the 'push' from all sides, putting pressure on his arms.**

 **I think that's about it.**

 **Last though, SHOUT OUT TO 'Ezeakel' this dude is helping out with this story more than you all think. Thank you.**

 **This story has a new character inside. Drop a review concerning it, if you will. Your feedback would speed up the next chapter coming out.**

 **Let's get this thing started. Don't forget to drop a review.**

CHAPTER 10

Purple ringed eyes snapped open from a dark patch at the head of a room. The person sat laxly on his throne in front of his red cloud wearing followers. He was squinting his eyes at something only he could see and the members of the Akatsuki waited patiently for what he had to say. His thin, reedy breaths were the only sound that somewhat filled the room. The man that held so much power as to be able to make the maniacal Jashin worshipper, Hidan, silently screw his lips,

"Tell us all your report, Itachi," his voice was deep and menacing, making the mad bomber, Diedara, to instinctively lower his head and for the mentioned Uchiha to clench his hand at the invisible force that weighed down on him, "because I do not understand how a 12 year old fuinjutsu user could take on an Uchiha of your calibre and _**a seal masters**_ _ **natural enemy**_ _ **!**_ " his voice rose and shook the ground they stood on, this time Diedara clenched his eyes shut before he opened them and looked around to see if anyone caught him, luckily for him all attention was on their leader. A purple haired, blank faced female looked at the man and the man waved for her to stay where she was, "well? Tell us all…how you couldn't match up to the Kyuubi jinchuriki," he settled back in his throne,

Kisame, who was miraculously fully healed, clenched his teeth in frustration and couldn't meet his leaders eyes, knowing exactly when not to talk back,

His partner, Itachi Uchiha, was the more defiant of the duo, opted to look Nagato in the eyes with his normal three tomoe sharingan lazily spinning, "Jiraiya the toad sage and Tsunade the slug Sannin were with him-"

"You caught the boy in his hotel room before that, much _**longer**_ before that," Nagato said, visibly having to restrain himself from crushing Itachi with one of his Rinnegan's signature attacks, "what stopped you from taking him out there?"

The others in the meeting, namely Kakuzu, Hidan, Diedara, Sasori, Konan Zetsu and even Tobi didn't envy the position the duo were in. There was another person in the gathering, a new inductee into the Akatsuki literally named 'Lightning holder' or 'Rai' for short. She was a lithely shaped teenage woman with thin muscles and frizzy white hair cascading down to the small of her back. She had mocha coloured skin and alluring brown eyes that looked pointedly at Kisame, then to Itachi, then, surprising enough, to Tobi. She had shin high silver steel boots on her feet and equally thick silver gauntlets on her hands, with her whole body dotted with restraint seals, chakra limiting seals and weight seals. Despite her massive steel boots she was rumoured to be able to move like the wind and strike faster than expected.

Tobi/Madara had found her fending off a whole platoon of Kumo hunter ninja, and doing so with ease that astounded even Tobi. Rai had attempted a coup but was greatly unsuccessful, not counting that Killer Bee would return from his mission earlier than usual to face off against her with the Raikage, A. The white haired and heavily muscled Kage would admit without shame that if Bee wasn't with him to perform combination jutsu he would have died at her hands.

Rai, from the moment she had formed an awareness for the world and was conscious of her environment, had noticed that she had a lot of energy, too much energy in fact. So much so that when her parents had called her down from her room to the living room the stair case was set on fire in her wake courtesy of lightning surges coming off her body. Her civilian parents, with teary eyes, handed her to the Kage at the time, E, to be studied and dissected. Under the knife the surgeons and doctors discovered that her lightning affinity was so thick and palpable that she was able light a bulb after running her fingers on a wall, sustaining it for a long time until it exploded an hour later. She was forced to go through gruelling and painful training at the age of 4 till E's death and A's ascension to Raikage. To keep her speed in check she had to wear custom made chakra gauntlets like A's as well as have weigh seals dotted all over her body and renewed from time to time.

She was the person sent out on double S rank missions.

The 19 year old woman had a grudge against the village leaders of Kumo; seeing as she had been dragged away from her parents, who later died of heart break after hearing that she had attempted a coup, all because she had a rare kekkai genkai. A short wave of electricity passed through her eyes as she remembered Tobi taking her down, making full use of his intangibility and his kamui, along with his chain weapon and raw taijutsu experience. Despite being lightning incarnate she couldn't keep up with the man. He caught her chin in a firm snap kick as she barrelled to him and the onslaught began, ending with her battered and bruised on the ground. She wasn't a proud woman and she wasn't an emotionless stone despite her training, but she knew as a fact that if anyone was able to keep up with her and make her lightning coated attacks look like light love taps had to involve a more painful training.

Tobi had told her that that was just the beginning of his power, and that if she joined _his_ group of S rank ninja he would teach her more. She snorted at the idea of being taught anything; seeing as she had mastered all lightning jutsu and perfected them, and also beaten all of her instructors, the current Raikage included. But the idea of being surrounded by those similar to her might and being able to take hard missions was too tantalizing to decline.

Nagato had told her she was a free partner, meaning she usually took missions alone but if her abilities were needed she was paired with someone. Like Tobi and Zetsu, who best worked alone.

Back to the current situation Itachi and Nagato were in, "he sealed us out of the room and escaped through the window,"

"You two are able to run at remarkable speed, why didn't you do that? Run at full speed," here he didn't get an answer, "I see…you, Kisame, why were you so easily defeated?" Zetsu had given him the whole report,

"A…mysterious ninja just came out of nowhere, he was much faster than me, Pein-sama," here Rai cocked her head to the side curiously,

' _Much faster than Kisame? Kisame has a quarter of my speed, if he had to be able to go faster than him he would be able to create electricity with his body,'_ she furrowed her eyes and looked down slightly, _'just like me…'_

"That cannot be possible," Nagato spat, "you weren't going all out,"

"I was," Kisame refrained from snapping out. Just barely.

"Then why didn't you make use of your shark form, or turn the terrain in your favour?" Nagato's voice felt like an over bearing weight as Kisame kept silent, "I see…you underestimated the child and your opponent…" he leaned back in his throne, "I see you two are not capable of completing this little mission," both kept silent, but Zetsu did shuffled a little bit away from Kisame when the shark man clenched his fist so tightly they cracked loudly. Not in the least bit intimidated Nagato continued, "I will give you two one more chance to redeem yourselves," the duo bowed slightly, Kisame's shoulders even lowered in relief, "but you will be going with Rai in case this 'mysterious ninja' shows up again," both nodded in acceptance, "I will summon you when you are to collect the Kyuubi holder, dismissed," and the holograms in the meeting (Hidan, Kakuzu, Diedara and Sasori) blinked out of life, leaving the rest to stare at each other,

Tobi pouted, "Tobi wanted to go on the super hard mission,"

"Maybe next time, Tobi," Rai said smoothly and lightly patted the man's back, making sure not to injure or electrocute him. The woman swivelled on her heels and began walking to her room in the Amekage's tower,

"Where are you going, Rai-san?" Itachi asked and stepped beside her, Kisame walked by her other side. Despite this she wasn't intimidated, not one bit.

"I'm going to my room to get my bag; I hear there's a beast in the mountains near Hidden Chill and I want its head. How about you guys?" her steel feet clinked quietly against the stone floor as her eyes followed the electricity coursing through the dim light bulbs above her, "Pein-sama really needs to change these," she raised a silver gauntlet up and tapped a bub, immediately the bulb and the bulbs connected to it brightened up exponentially until the whole tower was well lit, "much better," she sighed,

Kisame shrugged, "the dim lights add the ominous effect, don't you think," Rai snorted, "where _are_ we going Itachi?"

" _We_ are going to spar, care to join us before you leave?"

"Yeah I've got some time for a spar," she had been in the Akatsuki for a year now and she still hadn't sparred against anyone, in fact this was the second time she was in Ameagakure. She had been spending the majority of her time burning her energy by taking impossible missions from Iwagakure and other villages. Yes, she had a very good grasp on her adrenaline and her lightning but she still liked the rush of a good mission.

"All out spar,"

Rai raised an amused eyebrow at Itachi, the person who spoke, "are you sure? I mean, I can be very hard to beat,"

"Trust me Rai-san, you need your all to go up against us," Kisame grinned, at this cue Itachi's eyes morphed into the madly spinning shuriken, the Mangekyo.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Konoha,_

 _A week after their arrival,_

Naruto was sitting on his wheelchair in his apartment, looking out of his apartment window at the village reflecting on all that had happened in Wave after his absence. Daku had given him the weekly report from Wave and he was glad to hear that a mall was being built and that Hidden Darkness had their eyes on his country as a potential trade alliance. Hidden Darkness was a shinobi village that had been built underground with inter-connecting tunnels. This meant that that village had a natural defence. The village preferred taking making trade agreements and allowing their civilians to set up shops in different villages and nations, seeing as they were a peace keeping village. There was currently a stone masonry being set up close to the new mall site in Wave by Hidden Shadow.

The boy was trying his hand in taijutsu fighting styles, seeing as he may have a tiny chance of surviving if he at least had some co-ordination in his fighting. He had been personally going to the library to look for a style that would suit his body type: slow, defence oriented and used weapons. He hadn't found one yet. So he had Daku go to other places to find styles for him, whether in other villages or even in underground caves.

The boy snorted when his mind briefly flicked to using Daku's personal fighting style; the dark shadow made use of a style abandoned by most shinobi called 'The Fourth Fist'. It was not a popular taijutsu style because the style made use of suicidal strikes and making the opponent _see_ multiple openings in his counter attacks. For instance if Daku was to punch a person across the face and the person leans back, it would expose the side of his abdomen and his chest for a strike but if he brought his elbow back to crack the opponents cheek with blinding speed the victim would be too dazed to counter the rising knee strike or the heel kick. Other instances were the cannon balls from high buildings with his weight seals at full blast, or horizontal cannon balls. Naruto didn't have the raw speed or enough confidence in his abilities to be able to do that. Well… the closest thing to a cannon ball was when he leaped off buildings and wrapped himself with his iron blue bubble, like what he had done to Orochimaru.

He would have to make do with shielding himself against attacks and throwing his snake rope and his sleeping chain at his opponent.

The seal he had used to briefly give Jiraiya control over his chakra was simply called his 'Perfect control seal'. It gave the person being administered perfect control of his chakra, no matter how much or how small the chakra capacity of the person. The problem lay in the fact that he could only raise the duration of a single seal to ten seconds. What he did to solve this was to stack thirty of the seals on top of each other and place them on his biceps, one as a spare. That extended perfect control of his chakra to five whole minutes, irrespective of the Kyuubi chakra in his system. Think of chakra as a stream, Naruto's control could only slow it down to a rapid flow but the seal separated his chakra from Kyuubi's and slows it down exponentially. The seals were deactivated or 'dead' until he ever fell under a genjutsu or had to perform a jutsu that required great control.

The seal master had already created a seal to control the demon in Yakumo. The custom seal he made put the demon in a seal induced illusion, which in on itself was very hard considering the fact that the demon was made up of evil chakra which was unlike demon chakra. He made use of an hours worth of perfect control seals to draw a seal directly on the place the demon usually first comes out from, her neck. The seal constantly _reversed_ the demons chakra flow, confusing it and putting it a permanent state of bliss and mind numbing peace. That was the illusion put on it and that turned the demon into a catatonic vegetable, put into suspended animation.

The next thing the seal did was to have Yakumo's chakra flow through the demon as it reversed, meaning the demons chakra and Yakumo's mixed slightly. The only consequence was that any control Yakumo had over her chakra was shot to hell.

This procedure was very dangerous, meaning his chakra control had to be perfect enough to put a seal on a demon. To be a 100% safe he drew containment seals around his special place in case the demon escaped. Hinata was of great help; diligently putting perfect control seals on his arm just before the last one expired.

The boy had drawn three more containment seals onto his chakra beam seal to contain the heat even more and transfer into the attack, minimizing the after effects to a barely perceived heat on his fingers. He tattooed the complex seal onto his left palm seeing as his right palm already had his detection seal. Naruto had been training with the chakra beam for a week and had been seeing if he could use specific affinities into the attacks, he discovered that he could make use of individual affinities but he couldn't combine affinities that could negate themselves like fire and water, or lightning and wind. The attacks were very impressive and the fact that he didn't need to make use of his perfect control seal was a great plus side. Another plus side was that he had upgraded his seal, making good use of the unlimited time to relax and think clearly. He was at least Jiraiya backed off; admitting that the attack was equal to the Rasengan,

He was broken out of his thoughts by a quiet knock on his door, his custom alarm had already warned him of the persons presence but he had ignored it, he tapped the right arm of his wheelchair and the door snapped open to reveal a mantis mask wearing ANBU ninja, "been a while kid,"

Naruto smiled lightly and waved at the man, "I could say the same thing, Mantis," the ninja marched into his room and looked around, smirking under his mask when he didn't see any mess around his apartment,

"You've definitely cleaned up, that's for sure,"

"I grew up," Naruto shrugged, "do you want some tea? I have this new brew-" he stopped when the ninja waved his decline,

"I'm fine, I'm actually here to tell you that Hokage-sama has summoned you," the man was referring to the Tsunade Senju, the Hokage of one week. The woman had begrudgingly took up the mantle saying something about doing it for Dan and Nawaki,

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, "Why does she want to see me?"

Mantis shrugged, "I honestly don't know, but the council elders are there with her; it must be important," he walked behind the boy and was about to grab hold of his wheelchair to push it out of the apartment until Naruto stood up, "oh yeah…you can walk now…"

"Not for too long though, I'm still working on the bugs," the boy ran his detection seal over his body and nodded when he felt all his seals at their appropriate places, "let's get going; I don't want to keep Tsunade-sama waiting," he grabbed hold of his window sill and vaulted himself out of the window expertly, like he had been doing numerous times,

"Nicely done kid," Mantis flickered beside him and ran with him on the roof, his defences not jumping up around him because Naruto recognised the ANBU shinobi as a not a threat. Both silently kept roof hopping till they landed in front of the Kage's tower. Mantis personally escorted the blonde boy to the front of the Hokage's office door before he ruffled the boy's hair and went back to his post. Naruto walked up to the secretary and smiled lightly,

"Nice desk Shizune-san," the desk was currently swamped with documents and the woman looked like she would pass out from exhaustion any time soon, "is it oak or mahogany?"

The young woman laughed lightly and spared the boy a short smile, "good to see your well, Naruto-kun, Tsunade-sama would see you now," she motioned to the door and the boy took a deep breath, preparing himself for anything that was to come at him from the other side of the door. He pushed open the door,

Inside the room was the slug Sannin behind the Hokage's desk, she as leaning forward with her elbows on the desk and her Kage's hat not too far from her. To her right were three elders, Kohoru, Homura and Danzo. All three stared blankly at the boy, who blankly bowed politely to them,

"Do you know why you are here, Naruto?" Tsunade said after a brief silence,

"No, Hokage-sama,"

The woman smirked minutely before she smoothed over her expression, "I'll go straight to the point; your performance in my retrieval was stellar and Jiraiya recommended the idea of making you a ninja, maybe even evaluating you so you would be given a proper rank," Naruto kept his face in check and willed his heart to slow down, "and after personally reporting to the council on your performance the decision was anonymous," now she smirked, "we have agreed to make you a ninja," she pulled out a deep blue forehead protector and tossed it to the boy, "congratulations, brat,"

Naruto's eyes bugged out as he caught the hitaite, perspiration built on his head as he clenched the cloth and metal in his grasp,

"Aren't you going to say thank you?" Kohoru said with barely perceived venom under her voice, the other councillors seemed to agree with what she had said. All the occupants of the room, the hidden ANBU shinobi included, as Naruto slowly walked up to the desk and gently dropped the hitaite onto the table, sliding it back politely to the Hokage,

"I…I can't accept this…" he started hesitantly, and the woman sat back in shock at the frown the boy had on his face,

"What do you mean you 'can't accept this'? The council has agreed to make you a ninja, you should be more appreciative," Kohoru said, her venom bubbling out slightly,

Tsunade, instead of getting angry, looked Naruto with eyebrows furrowed in worry; since knowing the boy she had come to realize that it took a lot to get him to lose his cool and a lot more to make him openly express his sadness, "why don't you want to be a ninja anymore Naruto, Jiraiya said it's been your dream." She too frowned when the boy clenched his fists but hid it behind his back,

"I… don't want to be a ninja anymore, that dream has passed," Tsunade noted that the boy was incredibly talented in lying; Naruto looked her in the eyes, his voice didn't strain, his nose didn't twitch and his posture didn't slack. What gave him away were the barely perceived short breathes he was taking, "thank you for the offer, Hokage-sama and honourable elders but I must decline-"

"Outrageous!" Kohoru couldn't hold her anger in anymore, "you dare decline an offer by the honourable council?"

Naruto sighed and closed his eyes before he opened them and looked her dead in the eyes, "yes. Yes I dare,"

The older woman scowled and leaned forward, "you are going to accept our offer," she said it quietly and in a deceptively sweet voice, "your talents in fuinjutsu would greatly benefit Konoha,"

"that's enough Kohoru," Tsunade said and glared at the woman when she wanted to snap at her, daring her to say whatever barb she wanted to say, "you are all dismissed, except for you Naruto," the ANBU left but the councillors were more reluctant,

"He clearly does not see the opportunity for growth we have set in front of him, Tsunade-sama," Danzo droned, "give him to me-"

"Not gonna to happen." She propped her head under her chin and looked at the elders,

"You are clearly too young and inexperienced as a Hokage to know what exactly is good for Konoha," the war hawk said,

The slug Sannin stood up sharply and glared at the old councillors, "I was chosen by _all_ of the council to lead Konoha; they saw something in me that even I didn't see and that you," she pointed at Danzo, "definitely do not have. Now, leave before you three are carted out of here on _**one**_ stretcher," her nostrils flared and an enraged blast of air came out,

"Well I've _never_ -" Kohoru trilled,

Tsunade cocked her fist back and hovered intimidatingly over her desk, looking at the three menacingly, "did you just _dare_ defy a direct command from your _superior_?" before Kohoru could make their graves anymore deeper Homura silently pulled the back of her sleeve,

"We'll be going now," he spared Naruto a frosty stare and stood up with a flourish. The other elders stood as well and followed the quiet man out of the door,

"I _hate_ those sour prunes so damn much," Tsunade seethed and rubbed her forehead to calm herself down. She looked up at Naruto and expected at least a small jab on her age but didn't get any, she lightly kicked a small hole under the desk and an assortment of sake and wine slid out, "glad to see sensei still have these here," she murmured to herself as she took a cup from the rack and poured a glass into it, she chugged the sake down and sighed, "the older the better, I always say," she refrained from diving into the fine wine rack as she remembered the boy that was still in her office, "why don't you want to be a ninja Naruto?" she dropped her cup and pushed the wine rack back into its hidden compartment under the desk,

"I don't want to be one anymore," he shrugged,

"You're lying,"

"No, I'm not,"

"Yes, you are,"

"No, I'm not,"

"Fine, seeing as you're a civilian I can't force you to be a ninja; you have to be one if you want to be, irrespective of being a jinchuriki," she carefully studied his face and sighed when he didn't cave, "you know you can talk to me Naruto,"

Naruto snorted at what she said, "Just because we've travelled together doesn't mean I can confide anything to you, Tsunade-sama,"

"I guess you're right," her shoulders sagged, "but nothing says we can't at least be friends,"

The blonde boy raised a suspicious eyebrow, "where is this coming from, Tsunade-sama?"

This time her eyes drooped and her shoulders sagged even more, as if she was carrying a heavier weight than the Hokage's title, "I knew your parents…" the solemn atmosphere was broken by Naruto snorting,

"Of course you knew them. Sandaime-sama knew them, Jiraiya knew them, I think Orochimaru knows them, basically every one of the Hokage's personal guard knew them,"

"How did you know?"

Naruto crossed his arms, "whenever I ask them (his guards, Jiraiya, the Sandaime) they kept trying to change the subject, but if I asked a regular ANBU he flat out say he didn't know,"

"Do you know who they were?"

"I have a hunch on who my parents are, yes,"

"Tell me who you think they are, I'll see if you're right,"

"Uzumaki Kushina was my mother," the Hokage motioned for him to continue, "I checked the migration log in the library, which I still don't know why that's there in the first place, and the only Uzumaki that were in Konoha were Mito Uzumaki, the first's wife, and Uzumaki Kushina. Mito is too old to be my mother and a little snooping around later I found out that both were jinchuriki," the woman didn't want to ask him just who he had to interrogate, maybe an older civilian or shinobi, "and seeing as I'm the current jinchuriki, I deduced that I'm her son, correct?"

"…yes…your correct," she coughed into her hand and wondered how deep the boy could go if he wanted to find out something, "and your father?"

"The Fourth, Namikaze Minato. It can't be a coincidence that the Hokage's personal guard dance round the topic when I bring it up and that most people or that I was just randomly picked form the orphanage. Plus I have blonde hair and a flair for seals and I'm definitely not a Yamanaka,"

"You're very thorough,"

"I don't like being left in the dark,"

"Sensei wanted to tell you when you were much older but I think you're ready to see what they left you," she stood up and walked to the Yondaime's picture and unsealed a fairly large scroll from behind it, "they didn't know that they would be dying the same day they would give birth to you but they already willed all they owned to you, just in case. Here's a letter," the boy gingerly took it from her and read it:

 _Dear son,_

 _Hey there, it's your dad! I'm not sure why I'm doing this but your mother and I, Kushina Uzumaki, agreed that we should follow our gut feeling and write something down to you. Our gut feelings are what keep us alive in the trenches you know._

 _If you're reading this letter we're probably dead_

Here the line broke up, as if the writer had been hit with something seeing as the 'd' was stretched almost half way through the scroll, the next words had different, curlier hand writing,

 _Kushina here, Sochi-kun, don't listen to that_ _ **idiot**_ _; Minato-koi has never been smooth with words. What he MEANT to say was that we not be present to take care of you. We're both shinobi of Konoha._ Her lines wavered a bit; _I just want you to know that if we aren't there to raise you, we love you with everything in our entire beings. You can't see me but I'm trying to kiss my belly._ The blonde boy could only imagine the red haired woman laugh nervously and her husband pat her shoulders, Naruto's legs felt weak. _We're leaving this letter with Sarutobi-oji-sama to give you whenever you ask about us and we won't be there to tell you ourselves. I hope to_ _ **kami**_ _Jiraiya won't fu-mess up as a god father, I know Mikoto-chan wouldn't leave you to the dust; she's your god mother by the way. She may be quiet at first but if you get to know her she's a real sweet heart. Say 'hi' to Mikoto-chan if she's there!_ A slow tear crawled down the boy's face as he continued reading; _we've left you with absolutely everything we own, even Minato-koi's boxers!_ He chuckled under his breath and sniffed, imagining his mother giggling, _the estate and all our investments are willed to you and only to you, but I trust Mikoto-chan to look after everything until you're given._

 _Anyways, how are you? I'm not sure how old you are now but despite that I know you inherited my genius in seals! Oh…and Minato's too…but mostly mine. A mother knows. Know that whatever you chose to be in the future, a ninja or a civilian or even a tyrant, we will always be proud of you. That's how much we love you. Don't ever doubt that. But we hope you would do something worthwhile with your life. If you have Kyuubi in you, tell him I said 'hi' too. Kurama is really, really smart, listen to him if you have him._

 _Well, we have to go…_ a large red lip stick kiss came after this and a heart beside it, _we love you!_

 _The Yondaime Hokage, Namikaze Minato, and the Princess of Whirlpool, Uzumaki Kushina._

Naruto took a deep breath through his nose and closed his eyes after reading it. He had told himself that confirming his parents identities wouldn't get too him. Right now though he felt like a 500 pound weight on his chest had been lifted and he could finally breathe. He opened his eyes and hastily rubbed his tears out with his sleeve, taking a few breaths to control his breathing, before his eyes caught a small storage seal at the bottom, he unsealed whatever was inside, not wanting to think his parents left a trap there. What he say had more drops of tears come out of his eyes; Minato and a heavily pregnant Kushina were smiling into a camera as they were having an impromptu date in Ichikraku. Kushina was waving her hand and smiling into the camera, defying all thought that she would be weak and Minato was laughing quietly to himself as he pulled her into a side hug, about to feed her some ramen noodles. His parents were adorable.

' _They didn't abandon me… they loved me…'_ he blindly unsealed a seat and sat down beside the window, his eyes were still glued onto his parents letter, memorizing each individual stroke and trying to feel the emotion they were feeling as they wrote it. From his mother's curly handwriting he knew that she was a very emotional woman, finding it very hard to hide her feelings for anything. She was probably stubborn too, if the fact that she was Uzumaki hinted to it. His father's handwriting was more…lighter, like he was instinctively preparing to drop the pen and take up his weapons; this meant that he was very protective, probably for what or _who_ he loved.

"When I would sleep over at their place I would hear Kushina singing to you before she goes to sleep," Tsunade said softly as she pulled up a seat beside her fellow blonde, "and she would talk about how 'cool' you were going to be when you were born; 'you were their son', she would say," Naruto chuckled quietly again, nodding his head at her words, "and Minato would always boast on the things he was going to teach you. They loved you much more than anything they could put on paper," Naruto nodded again with his head lowered slightly, Tsunade patted the boys shoulder gently, "they left more letters at their estate; they're all over the place. Do you want to go there now?"

Naruto nodded his head slowly, "yes, if you don't mind," Tsunade quickly organised her desk and told Shizune, her assistant, that she was heading out and that she wouldn't be back for a while. She again patted Naruto's shoulder and led him to the Namikaze-Uzumaki estate.

 **Authors note**

 **So? How did I do? Did I do well?**

 **An emotional chapter, this one was.**

 **I created Rai to check Daku, because let's face it, Kisame can't get as fast as him and a doujutsu negating seal is on its way to negating Itachi's sharingan. With her in the fold now there's some competition for Daku. The reason I can't bring Madara, Obito or Pein into the scene for a fight is because it's too soon for that to happen. Don't eat my head, think about it. I'm not even sure why you all are hyperventilating about strong people; if Kakashi had brought in his Mangekyo into the fight with Daku and** _ **ALL**_ **its abilities, Daku won't stand a chance, if Asuma too used more signature jutsu. Itachi is a prodigy, a freaking Kage level shinobi at sixteen or something, Kakashi became chunin at six (I think) and Nagato is fully capable of levelling Konoha off the map. In my opinion Rai is just who we need.**

 **Naruto, in this chapter, is more emotional than before because he finally knows that he isn't a willing orphan anymore. He hasn't exactly known love before, y'know. Don't eat my head just cuz I didn't put a major fight in here.**

 **Next chapters going to have more insight into who Rai is and Naruto's development, more or less. Who knows unless you read. In all honesty I've already written the next chapter but I'm waiting for how THIS chapter is received. If it's positive enough I'll update immediately, but if not you'll have to wait a while.**

 **Tell me what you all think; I'd really like to know,**

 **See you on the flip side,**

 **Please review,**

 **Foy.**


	11. Chapter 11

**Woo! Better reception than I thought, which is nice! Keep em coming if you all don't mind.**

 **To 'Guest': nah, it's cool. I don't mind dark and maybe those kind of seals would be for terminally ill people. Maybe that's what Naruto needs to make his leg work for longer. Maybe. We'll see. Hope your still reading.**

 **Pretty much all I had to do was read over this story again and check for grammatical and logical mistakes. Tell me if I missed any.**

 **A little warning, I changed up history a bit concerning Itachi. Read to see what. It's nothing bad, it's great actually.**

 **Enjoy!**

CHAPTER 11

 _Konoha_

The Namikaze-Uzumaki estate was a very large but at the same time humble place.

The house consisted of a parlour, a living room, a kitchen, a humble library, a storage room, four bedrooms and an attic. The front yard was filled with multi coloured flowers Naruto only assumed his mother had planted in her leisure. The backyard was humble but not large enough for an all-out spar, so he chose to keep using his special place, plus there were also sweet smelling flowers at the back yard that were miraculously still in good condition thanks to some seals he found inside the walls that froze motion in the house and his god mother keeping the flowers intact when she was alive. Mikoto Uchiha wasn't too good as a god mother as his mother thought; the only thing he remembered about her was when he kept finding groceries and new clothes in his apartments with the initials 'MU' on the bag. He thought that it was his ANBU that helped him. So, in a way she was looking after him, a lot more than Jiraiya ever did that's for sure.

Tsunade had already gone and left him to look around by himself. He was now in his parent's room, running his fingers slowly through his father's white with red flames haori. The seals inside the walls kept everything within in suspended animation until the blood seal was deactivated at the gate, probably a combination of his parent's talents in fuinjutsu. The haori still lightly smelt of freshly cut grass and a light rain shower, and his mother's kimono smelt of…ramen. This made him chuckle lightly; he liked ramen as well, probably not as much as she did though. His parent's room looked a bit scattered, making him think that he came out a bit earlier than normal, if the fist sized hole in the wall and a male imprint (probably Minato) in the wall.

After exiting his parent's room we find him kneeling inside the baby room. His blue eyes looked around at all his parents had gotten him from teddy bears, to rubber shuriken, to cute little soccer balls. There was a wooden crib with neat blue blanket inside. The wall paper was, predictably, bowls of ramen and blue whirlpools. He grasped a small teddy bear in his hands and looked around calmly before he sealed it into a storage seal near his heart that had his mother's comb and his father's hitaite. He walked around the whole house like a phantom, touching and reading the little letters and instructions his parents left for him like he should snap the gas stove's knob to the right exactly three times before it would turn on, telling him that it always stuck. He found a note on the fridge telling him the exact places he should place his groceries. His mother was both methodical and playful, he was sure he inherited the former. Maybe the gut feeling his parents had for impending doom was thrumming too harshly for his parents.

He looked through the wedding photos the two had, though there weren't many present because it was a more private wedding it was still something.

After the emotional trip, or as emotional as Naruto could get, the boy couldn't resist checking out the joint clan library. The place was about the same size as his baby room but it was absolutely stocked with books, scrolls and tomes. Most of which were from the Uzumaki clan, probably sent to the last princess before the village was destroyed. The rest were Minato's unfinished breakthrough in all aspects of the ninja life, like his studies on how to perfectly combine fuinjutsu and genjutsu. Naruto had done that with Yakumo's demon, but he wasn't sure if it would work on a person or how fast he'll be able to prepare the seal in the heat of battle. So, in a way, he could half mark off what his father had started. This put some warmth in his chest.

The studies the man did finish was his studies on how to combine taijutsu and fuinjutsu; his fighting style was one of legends and was said to only be able to master by his own blood, or someone with high regeneration. Sadly still Naruto couldn't use the 'Humming bird' taijutsu style because it made use of flexibility, light stances and raw speed. The strikes came fast and unseen, breaking the opponent down with blows to vital organs so fast he won't know _how_ to dodge. The Yondaime was truly a shinobi of power only seen once in a generation or two. Maybe that was where Naruto inherited his prowess for seals and study or research from.

That was not to say Kushina wasn't a genius with seals; the red haired woman was said to have the strongest barrier seals and the most durable restraint seals, something that weakened when he was being given birth to. The woman, with all the Uzumaki scrolls, had in the library jutsu scrolls, a few summoning scrolls and fighting styles she had found during her missions as an active shinobi. Looking through the fighting styles he found two that could serve him well if he mastered them.

The first was called the 'Armadillo fist' fighting style. This style was discovered in a giant ant hill outside Earth country. Kushina's team had been scouting out the border for any holes until she had almost literally tripped over it. The woman, after reading it, had put it into storage since she was in not remote way a defensive fighter. The style greatly emphasized strong feet, forearms and back (spine) with limited flexibility ( **Note: limited, not zero)**. The scroll said that durable forearm and shin protectors were an important requirement. If a person was to attack, the user of the style was to block, after studying all the ways to effectively block an attack, and counter with bone shattering strength. Naruto could handle all that.

The second was called the 'Sloth Vine fist' fighting style. The scroll wrote that it was the Sandaime Uzukage's personal fighting style since the man was born with a slight limp in his right leg. The style made use of deceptively slow but precise strikes to major organs, either with weapons or with seals. The 'Vine' aspect of the taijutsu style was an addition the man put in to incorporate his chakra chains. It greatly depended on the user's ability to think on his feet since the blocks were terrible to say the least, but the counters and strikes were mouth-watering. The man used his chakra chains to grab hold of his opponent when he was near and rained down blows on him, or if he was fighting in a forest he used them to climb trees or throw away weapons.

The blonde boy pursed his lips in thought and weighed the scrolls in his hands, trying to decide which one to learn. Then he made his decision, _'who says I can't learn both? I'll start with the armadillo fist since that one is closer to what I can do with my body. What do you think Kyu?'_

" _ **I agree. With enough practice you can improve on it and incorporate you chakra beam,"**_ the great beast was sitting on his haunches, looking out of Naruto's eyes as well as reading through the boys memories, _**"what summons are you going to pick?"**_

' _Who says I need summons?'_

Kurama rolled his eyes and snorted, _**"With how you're going you won't need them, but since I've known you, you've never**_ _ **not**_ _ **had a back-up plan for your back-up plan."**_

' _I'll think about it,'_

" _ **Suit yourself, I'm going to have a nap,"**_ and he was out like a light. Naruto looked down at the two scrolls in his hands and nodded resolutely,

"There's work to be done,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Hinata-chan! Hey, Hinata-chan!" the Hyuuga heiress turned to the person calling her name and smiled lightly at the Yamanaka heiress,

"Ohayo Ino-chan," the blonde girl was lugging two pots of Juniper saplings in her thin arms, the purple haired girl politely took a pot out of Ino's hands and walked along-side her to her family flower shop, choosing to post pone her trip back to her clan compound, "how have you been doing?"

"I've been well," the girl flipped her hair and eyed the Hyuuga with her teal green eyes, "you look good, Hinata-chan," true to what Ino had said, Hinata did look good. She wore her purple coat fully unzipped, exposing her mid riff black shirt and the bandages wrapped around her torso and her arms, she also had on a thigh high black skirt and dark purple ninja grade leggings, with a pair of light blue sandals. Hinata smiled widely at the girl,

"Thank you, I thought no one would notice," contrary to what she said, she knew Naruto first noticed; he had sent her a smile and a thumb up.

"Are you kidding me?! Look around, all the guys are basically _ogling_ you," Hinata raised an eyebrow and looked around, true to Ino's words she _was_ being ogled. Most of the younger boys and some men stopped and were blatantly staring at her; a guy she passed by even licked his lips. She blushed deeply and lowered her head,

"Oh…"

"'Oh' is right. Hinata-chan you're HOT," Ino nudged her playfully, "what's your secret?"

"Secret?"

"Yeah, I mean, just before the chunin exams you were so bland, no offense, now you're desirable," Hinata blushed deeper and Ino giggled, "hold your horses, I'm not crushing on you. I'm as straight as Kiba!" she paused and leaned in to whisper conspiratorially, "or am I…?" steam was basically blowing out of Hinata's ears, "oh calm down, I was just messing with you. Now spill, what's your secret? Is it some sort of complicated diet? Do you detoxify yourself? I hear if you swallow tape worm eggs-"

"No! Don't do that or any of that," the Hyuuga heiress' eyes were wide in horror, "I exercise and I train, there's nothing to it,"

" _I've_ been exercising and _I've_ been training. There has to be more to it,"

Hinata eyed the girl beside her, "you don't eat much,"

"I have to keep my figure. This," she used her free hand to motion to her body, "doesn't happen overnight, y'know,"

"Yes but your too thin, no offense,"

Ino sighed and blew her fringe out of her eye, "none taken, but what do you want me to do? Sasuke doesn't like fat girls,"

"Sasuke owns your body?" Hinata was genuinely confused,

The other girl blushed lightly, "well…no…he doesn't,"

"Why are you starving yourself for him? Your weight is an important factor in being a ninja; you don't have to be fat,"

"I heard someone say Sasuke likes thinner girls," Ino stubbornly said with her nose raised,

"Unless you _want_ him to _use_ you and _leave_ you; Sasuke isn't exactly who you'd consider loyal," she whispered the last part to the girl beside her,

"If we start dating I'll change him," they both waved to the bun haired weapons mistress and the girl jogged up to them,

"Ohayo Hinata-chan, Ino-chan," both girls smiled at her as she joined their group, or Ino tried to smile, "what're you girls talking about?"

"Ino being delusional,"

"Hey!"

Tenten laughed and quirked an eyebrow at the purple haired girl, "how so?"

"She thinks Sasuke would notice her,"

"HEY!"

"The duck butt haired boy? I know a lost cause love-wise when I see one and _he_ is a lost cause,"

Ino ducked her head, "I-I can help him…"

"You can do that but you need to eat!" Hinata exclaimed, she followed the blonde heiress into her family's flower shop and gently placed the flower pot in her arms onto the counter, she put her hands on her hips and pointedly looked at the blonde girl, who couldn't meet her eyes,

Tenten furrowed her eyebrows and frowned, "if Sasuke can't see you for you then he's not worth it," before Ino could raise a complaint the brown haired girl spoke up, "I saw how you stared at those dumplings next door," Ino's argument died in her throat,

"And those chocolate bars down the street," Hinata said with a small smile,

"And those frosted tarts next to the chocolate store," Tenten said with a big smile,

"And those roasted turkeys next to _that_ store," Hinata said with a full blown grin,

"And the soda that kid was drinking," Tenten said with a little giggle in her hands,

"You saw that?" Hinata 'whispered' to the weapons mistress,

"Yeah, I even saw her lick her lips," both laughed loudly,

"I get it ok!" the blonde girl exclaimed over their cackling, her face was beet red. She punched Tenten's shoulder and crossed her arms with a small pout, "I'll eat more, are you happy?"

"Very happy," Hinata pulled her into a side hug and pulled Tenten, who was hesitant to join in too as well, "now we have to convince Sakura to eat more as well,"

"I have an idea; let's set up a team picnic," the weapons mistress said as she and the other two gently pulled away from each other,

"that's a great idea, I know the perfect spot," Ino chirped as she swivelled around and began setting the juniper sapling in their right places, "I found this really cool river near training ground 14 near these nice flowers," she sighed wistfully,

"I'll even ask Naruto-kun and Yakumo-nee-chan to come," Hinata said,

"Who's Naruto? Was he in the chunin exams?"

"Yeah, he was in the Kage's ward booth, Sandaime-sama put him there for his safety,"

"The boy on the wheelchair? The guy that held Neji back with that freaky rope, right?" Tenten supplied with a confused look,

"Yes, he won't admit it but he's really shy but when you get to know him you'll see he's a real gentleman," she sighed wistfully,

"Sounds like a cool guy. My teams off training and missions this weekend," Ino said as she watered some tulips,

"Mine too," Tenten added,

"Same," was Hinata's addition, "I think team seven would be free this weekend too. We'll go round and invite them,"

"We can even hold a small spar a while after we eat," the weapons mistress bubbled out,

"I'll handle the food-"

"Me too," Ino cut into whatever Hinata was about to say, "Do we cook here or at your place? I'm fine with either,"

"Let's do the cooking here, but I'm bringing my special cinnamon buns with me, that's for sure," the Hyuuga heiress licked her lips,

"I can't wait. I have to go and open the store now, see you guys later. Say…this evening?"

"Yeah, I'll bring forehead girl with me," Tenten waved and left the flower store. The girl had slowly made friends with the other girls when she had visited Hinata in the hospital and apologized for her Hyuuga team mate's harsh words. Hinata couldn't keep a grudge even if it would kill her so she insisted that it was fine. Hinata had been coming over to her father's weapons store to talk and restock her kunai and shuriken. From there a sort of friendship formed.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Quiet metal clad feet trudged slowly through knee high snow. The person, a female with long white frizzy hair, looked up the mountain with mild excitement dancing in her eyes before she blew out some air and continued her slow progress upwards. It was moments like these that Rai truly appreciated; to be able to walk at the speed she wants to and to really take in the scenery. The view that she beheld was of the golden sun slowly rising up from the horizon and the light green trees in the forests close to the mountain she was climbing glistening softly as the sun's rays beamed down on them. She stopped and furrowed her eyebrows in thought, trying to remember how many times she had looked for this sort of peace but coming up with blanks; maybe her thirst for a good fight kept her in the light.

She riffled through her red cloud speckled Akatsuki uniform and brought out a map, _'this should be the place,'_ she looked up but only saw thick snow falling from the sky and the top of the mountain much farther than what she had expected, _'maybe I've got the wrong mountain?'_ then she shook her head negatively, _'the guide said the highest mountain…but he also said the monster was mythical…I should have thought this through,'_ she pushed the map back into her robe and ran a finger over the large scroll on her back, unsealing a pair of binoculars smoothly. She squinted her eyes through them and looked upwards, the snow clouding her view slightly but she did make out a faint outline of a cave, _'I've never slept in an ice cave before,'_ to warm herself up she sent a short burst of lightning outwards, melting the snow and making steam come off her body, _'much better,'_ she sealed the binoculars back into the scroll and pushed her left foot back a bit, clenching her fists as she did so. It started with a small spark from her knees, then the spark turn into dangerous electrical crackling before her whole body was covered in harsh lightning surges and she leaped forward and appeared at the mouth of the cave,

The electricity coursing around her flickered to a stop and she scratched her cheek lightly with her gauntlet covered hand,

' _Point seven seconds, not bad,'_ she wrapped a Kumo seal reinforced scarf around her neck and rubbed her hands together, generating a small spark and expelling it out of her body again, the radius was a bit smaller than last time since the snow was much thicker up there. She used her pointer finger to point ahead at the massive cave opening and a small but sharp beam of white light shot out; it was initially a chakra control exercise she went through but now that she had full control over her lightning she could throw numerous jutsu and still not burst the light on her finger. This brought back the memory of her all out spar with the Uchiha and the swordsman.

Rai had not anticipated Itachi and Kisame ganging up on her but she took it all in stride. Itachi's Mangekyo could perfectly track her speed but it was one thing to track her and it was another to be able to keep up with her. Though his Susanno armour did become very pesky as well as his amaterasu, he used them frugally but effectively. She had to take off a few weight seals to be able to just barely slip into the armour as he activated it and electrocute him. Kisame was what most would consider having being matched up against a person that would perfectly match him; seeing as Rai was literally electricity incarnate and the shark was literally 92% water. The last mistake the man had made was shooting out a constant stream of water from his mouth and all she had to do was travel through as live electricity and punch him through a wall, using the small puddles around to hop around and penetrate Itachi's Susanno just barely. Lucky for her she didn't look into his eyes, she would have been a goner.

Make no mistake, it was a long way into the fight before she even saw the slightest of openings in Kisame's shark form to be able to think of using the water from his mouth to knock him out, or even think of using the puddles around to dodge 'Fire release: Mystic phoenix fire,' or the 'Wind release: Shuriken storm,' or even the hardest one to counter, Itachi's personal, but secret, favourite jutsu 'Fire and Earth release: Combination jutsu: Rage of the fallen god'. All these jutsu were used BEFORE Kisame was put out of the equation. The bloody Uchiha fought like a cornered lion that was for sure. Just thinking of the last jutsu, 'Fire and Earth release: Combination jutsu: Rage of the fallen god' sent ripples of goose bumps go up her arm.

Itachi expended more than half of his remaining chakra to create water clones out of the water around, while Kisame fully merged with Samehada and showed all present that he didn't need water to be able to swim; he could swim in the _air_. After making the clones and ordering them to attack her, Kisame included, the Uchiha hid in the waves of clones to go through a fifty hand seal long chain just before he cancelled his clones, to give him some room. Molten chains latched onto his arms from the ground, searing his sleeves off, and with a mighty heave he pulled out a demonic looking creature from the ground, controlling it with the chains in his grasps. The creature was made completely out of molten rock. It looked like a sort of half man, half bull, with long protruding horns from its head and a massive axe in its hands. The creature moved as fast as Itachi, which was considerably fast.

The cool Uchiha sent the creature after her not counting on the fact that it perfectly negated her lightning attacks by transferring the electricity into the ground and punching his ripped arms at her, sending blood out of her nose in her shock. Kisame zipped after her air borne body and head butted her into the ground, creating a massive gash on her forehead. Her daze didn't last long; she noticed the shark man had the intention of sucking her chakra out so she spun to her feet and threw arcs of lightning at the man, forcing him to dodge and not having any other option than to spray her with the jet of sharp water from his mouth, this was what ended his participation in the fight. The woman didn't know any effective water jutsu to douse the molten creation so she managed to kick it into the air and pump so much electricity into its body it exploded. From there all she had to do was push her way into the Susanno shield and electrocute Itachi into unconsciousness.

Rai didn't expect this much of a challenge for both S rank shinobi but she was grateful for the challenge. The brown skinned Kumo nuke-nin shook her head to bring her back to the present and she slowly walked into the pitch black cave, her small light beam cutting through it like butter. Her silver boots crunched under her as she cautiously looked around. Just then she heard a sharp whooshing sound and she jumped a little in the air to dodge a tail trying to clear her feet from under her, her danger senses, the one all experienced shinobi had, blared and she lay on the ground quickly to duck a paw strike, rolling away from another paw strike. Her eyes crackled with live power and two arcs of electricity escaped her fingers, bouncing around the cave walls and meeting at the other side, allowing her to briefly as well as get a small mental map of how wide the cave was and see who had attacked her.

Or what had attacked her.

What she saw was a spiny, mutated variation of a mountain lion, with an abnormally long prehensile tail and thick spines shooting out of its back two feet into the air. The teeth, from what she saw, consisted mostly of canine that descended past its sharp lower lip. It was a lumbering behemoth that pawed the ground like a bull, leaving a deep claw track in the ground.

Oh and it was made out of ice; eyes, body, tail and everything.

The ice creation opened its mouth wide and roared, making the lightning release user laugh, "your so cute," she stood up and dusted down her robe calmly, "now do me a favour and die, will ya," she took a basic kick boxers stance, which wasn't her usual stance, and motioned with both her hands for the ice monster to come at her. The monster, showing surprising intelligence, leaped at her. Her silver gauntlet fist swung and smashed against its head, creating a deep crack in its forehead and pushing it back a few feet. The crack smoothed over but the monster warily stalked around her, the woman laughed, "now your careful huh, I'm pretty sure it's too late," electricity danced in her eyes again and she grabbed the ground, making white lightning crack through the ice and circle around the monster. She creature warily looked around but didn't step out of the crackling circle, "smart kitty," live power sparked sharply and covered the ice monster in a dome of electricity, _"Lightning release: Half moon,"_

The monsters blood curdling screams could be heard from miles around.

The white haired Kumo nuke-nin walked into the smoke and waved it away; she bent down and grabbed the ice creature's massive head. She silently sealed it into her scroll and began setting up camp.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Yumi, leader of Hidden Chill, raised her head sharply when she heard the unfamiliar roar of the mythical ice mountain lion. She idly rubbed her hands through a husky's head to calm him down as she stared in the general direction of where the lion was believed to reside. This was the first time since the second shinobi war that it had been heard and from its volume it sounded final. She smoothly stood up from her knees and dusted them down before she handed the husky to a masked male ninja standing behind her,

"Take him back to the kennels, Jyu-kun," the ninja bowed sharply and gently began leading the scared dog back to kennels. The woman pushed open her homes small fence and began her short trek to the leader's tower. Hidden Chill wasn't a shinobi village popularly known for its ninken but when there wasn't much of an option, dog partners were called in to help. The woman placed her hands behind her back and walked out of Chill's equivalent of a park. The ground was always snowy and the air was frigid, almost unbearably so, but there was never a lack in children playing around.

The blonde woman smiled lightly at some parents trying to get their four children to take it easy with the running, the couple were in their mid-twenties and they were red faced from exhaustion; children were really a bundle of energy, "by any chance would you need some assistance?" she called out to the couple,

The flustered parents bowed politely, the male partner, "no Yumi-sama, it's fine," they looked behind them to find their kids but didn't see anyone, they panicked and whirled around to the leader, but they paused when they saw they children lined up in front of the blonde woman, staring up at her with wide eyes. All four wore thick black parka, starkly contrasting the snow falling on their shoulders, with equally thick white snow boots,

Yumi smiled with her eyes closed at them and gave them a finger wiggling wave, "hello,"

"Is it true you can _fly_?!" a female child, probably the youngest blurted out and began flapping her arms,

"Don't answer her…Is it true you can see in the dark? How many carrots did you eat?!" another girl said, maybe the oldest,

"Now, now kids we don't want to tire out Yumi-sama, right?" the couple pulled their children back gently,

"they're little sweet hearts, don't worry about it," Yumi tittered a small laugh as she whirled around, her long blonde hair flying in the little breeze and waved over her shoulder to them.

Hidden Chill was situated in the colder region of the elemental nations, farther up north than even Snow country, this made it a partially hostile environment for some civilians but generations of living in Chill had taught all the little tricks on could do to stay as warm as you wanted, even for civilians. The present generation didn't find the cold in any way bothersome unless there was the occasional blizzard. Chill was abundant in land because most other Hidden villages were too scared of the sort of cold Chill go through on a daily basis. Despite these minor set backs' Chill had adapted and advanced more than most expected, having a minor trading agreement with Snow country to purchase some technology like gas cookers, water heaters, steam powered trucks to clear away the snow near houses in the morning and in the evening, among other things. From there Chills engineers started inventing.

Chill was ostracized by the other nations, once upon a time, when an epidemic befell them, starting from a child that managed to say he took some dumplings from a masked stranger before he died. From that child more became infected with what was referred to as 'Cold disease' because the body would freeze up and intense shivering would befall, like epilepsy, but the person would gradually lose his colour and die. It mostly struck the younger kids and their animals. This was a time when healers were not too common in Chill, only engineers. It was almost too late for Chill until a junior nurse began an unsanctioned experiment on the first victim, extracting the soggy almost digested dumpling from the dead child and finding a small black ball bearing inside. She took her findings to the doctor and a cure was scraped out from the ball bearing. The nurse died from initial contact but a memorial was placed in her honour, as well as the other casualties, in front of the leader's tower.

Yumi had lost her mother, the leader then, and her three sisters to the epidemic, leaving only her to try and scurry for control when only chaos and confusion rose after the epidemic had been ended. She was fourteen when she became leader. She had gained her peoples trust and had so far lead them well enough. Those were among her proudest moments; the major other one being that she had agreed to ally herself with the other five minor villages. Naruto had given her seals that would be able to keep a whole building warm, and the Hidden smoke leader, Kitsuen, had some of his best builders build a massive building for livestock and a farm. The seals were put into the building as well the houses of willing civilians and shinobi who wanted to keep warm the easy way.

Currently there were numerous Marsh and Waterfall medics in her hospital teaching the medics there more efficient ways of treating patients, most opted to stay permanently.

The woman pushed open her office doors and sat down on her desk, preparing for another whole day of reading mission reports and writing correspondence letters to the other five leaders.

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Wind release: Shuriken storm: this is a B rank jutsu that converts barely harmful wisps of air around the target to the user's shuriken. This is through having a cyclone spin around the opponent harmlessly and throwing numerous shuriken into the storm for a more harmful effect. If used properly mastered one would be able to expand the cyclone into a tornado or even a hurricane. Other variations of this jutsu are available with the other affinities except Earth.**_

 _ **Fire and Earth release: Combination jutsu: Rage of the fallen god: this is the third of the four 'Fallen god' jutsu personally created by Itachi, Shisui and Bibi Uchiha. The three Uchiha prodigies of their time, who only one survived, created this particular jutsu in the genin days but perfected it in the jounin days, where a year later the latter two prodigies died from mysterious circumstances. The jutsu combines fire and earth affinities to create something close to molten lava and moulds the figure of a half man, half bull (a minotaur) who is said to embody the 'Rage' of the 'fallen god'. The beast, according to the three prodigies' individual notes, is said to boost their energy from its palpable anger and lust for the users opponents defeat, possibly death. From the notes, it was written that the jutsu was inspired by Suna puppet masters ability to control puppets. They went further to write that the molten chains, despite being painful, made it very easy to control the 'Rage of the fallen god'. The other 'fallen god' jutsu are… (You have to read to find out :D) this is a clear S rank ninjutsu and so far it is only known by the three prodigies and those that have died fighting against it (oh, and now Rai and Kisame).**_

 _ **Lightning release: Half-moon: is supposed to be a C rank jutsu, but in Rai's hands it turns into an A rank jutsu. The jutsu is a capture**_ _ **only**_ _ **technique, meant to maybe knock out the victim inside the dome. Rai can utilize this as a capture technique but she would honestly prefer using it as an execution technique, sparing her from the spray of blood and guts. It can be negated by any B ran Wind jutsu.**_

 **Light hearted chapter, somewhat, but trust me it's going somewhere. Everything here is relevant and/or significant.**

 **How'd you all like Rai now? Badass chick in my opinion.**

 **Next chapter should show Naruto training OR him associating with the others, either one. Who knows?**

 **Please review, it would be greatly appreciated. :D**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	12. Chapter 12

**Next chapter up,**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 12

 _Konoha,_

 _Two days later,_

"Go slow ok?"

"How slow, Naruto-sama?"

"As slow as you can go," The blonde boy, clad in a simple white T-shirt, light blue shorts and pitch black forearm and shin protectors scratched his cheek, "How slow _can_ you go, Daku?"

The dark shadow actually paused and looked down, thinking how slow he could do something physically, "academy graduate slow?"

"Anyway you can go slower?"

"New academy student slow?"

Naruto shrugged, "that's fine. Lets start," Daku walked back a few feet from Naruto and faced him, Naruto doing so as well. Then, as slow as he could go, Daku bent down into the basic Armadillo fist taijutsu stance. His right hand was stretched forward and his left hand bent in a perfect ninety degrees and grabbed his elbow, his left leg was fully drawn and his right was bent forward as if he was about to pounce. Naruto mirrored this well enough, his black forearm glistening in the early rays of the sun that was barely up in the sky. The boy imitated his loyal dark shadow as he swung his drawn leg forward, holding the shin protectors up to block an invisible opponent, and with a flick his leg was pulled back. Both slowly went through the arm movements of grabbing their opponents, sticking their fingers through their invisible chests, and smashing their knees straight into their stomachs. Naruto spun around, with Daku, and thrust his forearm out, catching an invisible shuriken, and with a spinning kick he sent it back.

The next stance was of both using their forearms to block an overhead strike and holding the stance for a full thirty minutes, getting Naruto used to waiting. Daku led the Armadillo style kata with small finger jabs to where the neck of the opponent approximately was and side stepped methodically, moving away from a strike and using his forearms to catch a fist. The last move was to shuffle away and move forward with a shin guard to the face.

"Did you get all that Naruto-sama?"

"Perfectly, watch me for any problems,"

"Hai, Naruto-sama," Daku stayed where he was and crossed his arms, watching as his master went through the fighting stance he had memorized the other day. Two straight hours, and after a few corrections to his stances,

"Do you think I'm ready to go faster?" Naruto asked and wiped the sweat on his forehead off with a towel that seemingly appeared out of nowhere and disappeared almost as fast,

"Yes, Naruto-sama; your first basic stances are strong, all you need is to go a bit faster, as fast as the scroll says,"

"And how fast is that?"

"Mid chunin, but I personally think you can get there with enough practise,"

"Fine by me. Watch me," this times the blocks and some strikes were faster, about low genin. This lasted for another two hours until Naruto slumped near a tree and waved away Daku's concerns, "I'm fine, this style is more demanding than I thought," he unsealed a bottle of water and chugged down the whole bottle and tossing the empty can to Daku to hold onto, "keep that for me please, I might forget to fill it back up later," Daku bowed and sealed it into his wrist, "how many more basic stances are there?"

"Three more, the first, which you've been doing, is for combat with the guards, the second is combat with your 'claws' and the last is combat 'in motion'" when Naruto cocked his head in confusion the shadow continued, "the style requires several sharp finger pokes, sometimes outright punches, and you are expected to be able to roll in a ball and use that form to fight," Naruto had skimmed through the scroll but it was Daku that gone through it for any hidden details, "it's not as hard as you think, Naruto-sama,"

"Says the guy that can run faster than _sound_ ," Naruto rolled his eyes and looked up at the clouds, idly noticing that it wasn't yet noon but it was closing in quickly. Daku bashfully scratched the back of his head, "tell me the truth, Daku, can I really master this style?"

"The style is perfectly suited for you, Naruto-sama, and with your work ethic I'll say you reach high chunin level in this style in about ten months, at most," Naruto nodded and got up, stretching his whole body, "you wish to go through the first basic kata again?"

"Yeah, I'm going to master it _today_ ," Daku bowed under the fire in his master's eyes and watched again for two more hours as Naruto sped through the kata again, and again, and again until high noon. Naruto looked like he would drop any second; his whole body was dripping with sweat, small splotches of grass was on his white shirt showing that he had fallen during the kata, and he was panting. He wobbled on his feet and powered through the basic kata again, and again, ignoring the sun blazing above him.

"You need to rest Naruto-sama,"

"One more time," Naruto jabbed his fists forward quickly, the last slowing down a bit before he twirled on his right foot and smashed his foot against an imaginary opponent,

"Naruto-"

"one…more time," he blocked with a raised shin and forearm combo and rolled backwards, "one more…time," two jabs to the neck and a knee chick to the chest. Then, to his horror, his whole body locked up and he fell forward like a tree, Daku caught him easily, "what…happened?" he tried to move his arms but they remained unresponsive,

"This is what happens if a beginner practices this taijutsu style for six hours straight," he lay Naruto down under a tree, "I did say you needed rest," the blonde boy could practically taste Daku's smugness.

"Don't rub it in," he strained his neck and refrained from yelling in frustration, "this is annoying," he sighed and closed his arms before they snapped open, "someone's past the alarm seals," he focused and sighed, "its Yakumo, you can stay," on cue the brown haired girl burst through the bushes in front of him and face planted straight into the ground, tripping over her feet,

"Sensei!" she scrambled to her feet and sprinted to the blonde, paralysed boy, "what happened?" she glared icily at the red eyed, turban clad dark shadow and hurried to bring out the single kunai she hid in a sheath at her heel, dropping it the first time and gripping it between her hands, trying to be intimidating, "state your business!" she cursed mentally at the sweat that was building in her palms and she grit her teeth to look intimidating, "talk!" Naruto raised an amused eyebrow,

"Yakumo-"

The girl didn't hear him; her teacher, the person that she considered the strongest she had ever seen, was laying ramrod under the gaze of a person she had never seen before. You can see how this may seem compromising in a bad way. The girl's arms shook as she held the kunai up, "I said talk!"

Naruto chuckled, "calm down Yakumo," the girls eyes snapped down to her teacher, who she was crouched protectively beside, then back to the stranger standing silently in front of her, "I appreciate your worry but I'm fine…I think I am,"

Her stance slowly lowered but didn't go down completely, "who-who is he sensei?"

"Oh him? He's my dark half," he said it so coolly Yakumo would have thought he was commenting on the weather, "why aren't you in the academy?" the blonde seal master had asked for a favour from Tsunade to allow her into the academy, after being thoroughly grilled on how deep her control of her demon was and on her current level. She had been put into the second class of the academy, something the young girl was very grateful for,

"Iruka-sensei called in sick;" she knelt beside her teacher and furrowed her eyebrows, "what's wrong with you?"

"I went a little too hard on my training, nothing serious," he avoided her eyes, not seeing the stars in her eyes, probably after hearing him training himself into a full body paralysis, which didn't sound impressive if you were the victim, "can you give me a massage, Daku?"

"I fear I would break you if I did," was the prompt answer,

"Ah, yes, you're made of wood, stone _and_ clothes…" Naruto would have face palmed if he could move,

"Sensei?" Yakumo piped up tentatively, her young teacher hummed and looked at her, "I…can _try_ and give you a massage," before he could answer the reached for his right arm and began rubbing smooth circles, "so strong…" she murmured to herself as she used the opportunity of touching the blonde boy's arm to feel it up, marvelling on how muscled they were despite the fact that it didn't bulge, she concluded that the boy also did daily exercises; not only training her and Hinata. She flexed his arm slowly, marvelling again when he didn't wince, not knowing that the motion didn't hurt at all. The young girl was merely going by instinct on where to rub soothingly.

This was the scene Hinata walked into.

She also got into gentle fist stance when she saw Daku.

Naruto, who was sitting up so Yakumo could reach his shoulders, rolled his eyes and introduced her to his loyal shadow.

"Dark half?" she knelt down beside her teacher and looked at him curiously,

"It's a long story-"

"We've got time," the Hyuuga heiress interrupted him,

"I used seals to try and give Kyuubi a smaller external, physical form but I channelled my own chakra instead of his own. Thus, Daku," both girls 'oh'd' in understanding and silence reined in the clearing,

"Sensei?" Hinata piped up thirty minutes later; Naruto was on his feet and stretching, rolling his shoulders and popping his neck, working out the kinks in his body. The boy looked at her and raised his eyebrows just as he was taking a swig of water, "the girls and I have set up a team picnic and I was wondering if you could come as well," she gripped the edges of her skirt in her hands nervously, "as a guest, Yakumo can come as well. It's this weekend at three in the afternoon,"

Naruto smiled lightly at them, "It'd be nice to meet your friends, Hinata," he turned around and took off his forearm and shin guards, looking down at each curiously before he sealed them into wrists, "but I'll be a little late; I've got some issues to sort out first."

"Great! I'll…uh…I'll tell Ino-chan, Ten-chan and Sakura-chan that you're coming," she got to her feet and smooth her black skirt down, reaching into her purple coat and pulling out her forehead protector, tying to her forehead and adjusting it, "do we have training this evening, Naruto-sensei?"

"Not anymore; I'm sorry but I'll be busy until this weekend," Naruto nodded for Daku to leave and began walking out of the clearing,

"What will you be doing?" Yakumo asked as she and Hinata caught up to him, she furrowed her eyebrows when Naruto pursed his lips; knowing that this was a sign that he was either thinking deeply or contemplating something, "sensei?" she snapped him out of his thoughts,

Naruto looked at both of his students and kept walking, "what do you know about Wave country Hinata?"

"Sakura-chan said it used to be a waste land and there was this tyrant controlling there until he just…died. That's what Kakashi-sensei said to her anyways," Hinata said and looked at her teacher, Naruto stayed silent and about half a minute later both girls eyes widened, "wait, it was-"

"Daku, but it was indirectly me, of course,"

"I could report this to Hokage-sama,"

"Are you?" he looked at the girl from the corner of his eyes as he unsealed a light blue baggy hoodie and wore it; to protect his identity since he didn't want the civilians to stare at him as he walked past to Ichikraku for a ramen lunch. The hoodie covered his eyes and his hair, leaving only his whiskered mouth in sight; he stuffed his hands into his pockets and kept on walking. Even though all the fuss about him being the jinchuriki, something the civilians knew of before him, had sort of calmed down he still preferred walking around incognito.

"I-I don't know…" Hinata unconsciously copied her teacher by zipping up her purple coat, Yakumo was clad in a simple red and white kimono so she didn't have any coat to put on, though she did put her hands behind her back, "I want to but…I don't want to…"

"Make up your mind; are you reporting me or not?" Naruto whispered to his Hyuuga student, he had a hidden smirk plastered on his face, perfectly shielded by the sides of his hood; he idly waved to Ino with Hinata, who was standing boredly in front of her flower shop sucking on a lollipop boredly. The girl looked over with her teal green eyes and beamed at them before she waved back, though she did waver when she waved at Naruto, who looked as mysterious as he had hoped. The girl, using some sort of secret look, flashed a smile at Hinata and used her eyes to motion at Naruto, Hinata responded by smirking slyly and nodding. All this happened within ten seconds.

"I won't report you, but-but if I see any _trouble_ …" Hinata whispered 'threateningly' to Naruto just as they ducked into Ichikraku,

"Then I won't be giving any trouble, hopefully," he looked at Yakumo and asked, "how about you, Yakumo?"

"I won't, Naruto-sensei,"

Naruto slid onto a stool and held up a single finger and Ayame, who knew who had come; she smiled and went to get his order ready, Yakumo ordered the same thing, "do you have a mission Hinata?" the Hyuuga heiress didn't sit down though,

"As a matter of fact I do," here she unzipped her coat again, unaware, "the picnic is on training ground 13, Saturday, 3 pm. Later sensei," then she exited Ichikraku ramen. Naruto pursed his lips and thought of whether or not to tell Daku to keep track of Hinata, until his youngest student nudged his arm,

"She won't squeal,"

The blonde boy snorted out a laugh, " _squeal_?"

The brown haired girl blushed heavily and ducked her head, "I said the first thing on my mind ok," she punched his shoulder when he had to cover his mouth with his hands to muffle his laugh, "jerk,"

The boy stopped laughing and ruffled her hair; "oh relax kid," in response the girl shook off his hands and crossed her arms stubbornly. Naruto smiled at Ayame when she dropped his bowl of ramen and whispered for her to keep the coming.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _That Night_

Naruto knew that what he was about to do could be classified as evil and could be interpreted as wrong but he just needed to do it, mainly for a selfish reason but the other reason was to provide more shinobi for the minor village alliance. He had already spoken with the other village leaders and they had given their blessing, though the blonde boy had said that they didn't need too many shinobi to provide support.

The young seal master flipped through a small chain of hand seals and at the end he slapped his palms together, the moon shining down onto him just outside his apartment. A small wooden plank slipped out of his wrist, like magic, and he whispered, " _Expand_ ," the wooden plank shivered and widened till it looked like a skate board but without the wheels. He grabbed the seal powered piece of art out of the air and looked over it with a critical eye to make sure everything was still in place. The board was coloured in with black paint with orange, red and blue fire licking the sides and the bottom, his eyes easily caught the seals he had dotted on them. There was a large chakra affinity seal on the bottom with trap seals he could whip out in a moment's notice, there was also something fuinjutsu masters called 'blood lock' which was a complex seal that only allowed the original user to use as well as give the creation sentient ability to track him and him it. This meant that he could control the board remotely.

He had been practicing how to use his seal board for a while now, seeing as he had realized he needed a way of transporting himself faster than his wheelchair could provide; he could go at high speed and fight with limited capabilities on it, this was one of his hidden back up plans. He ran his finger over the edges and wherever his finger passed over turned into metal, making only the edges and a bit of the bottom turn into metal. He didn't turn his head to acknowledge Daku, who had flickered beside him,

His dark shadow fell onto a knee and lowered his head, "Naruto-sama,"

"At ease, Daku," he sighed and screwed his face to the side a bit, putting on a pair of dark blue goggles and threw on his Wave leaders light blue robes,

"You don't have to do this, Naruto-sama; I can do it fine on my own,"

"I need the added experience, Daku, I want to know how much stronger I am after Tsunade-sama's retrieval mission,"

"I have your back, master," the dark shadow stood up smoothly as his master turned to him,

"I trust you to, Daku," Naruto replied with a wan smile, he then took off in a sprint, running full tilt towards the east gate of Konoha, he threw his seal board before him and jumped onto it, pumping his chakra through it and commanding it to use on his wind affinity. He flew through the air silently and began to lift up more into the air, going much high than the tall trees in Konoha. The boy pumped more chakra in until he was miles above Konoha, just a speck in the midnight sky that would be passed off as an owl. He put his arms behind him and ducked his head so that the wind thrashing around him won't slow him down, his goggle protected eyes looked forward and made sure he was far away from Konoha before he commanded his board to mix his wind affinity with his fire affinity, creating a scorching hot blast of blue fire that propelled him faster through the air. He kept a steady stream of chakra into his seal creation,

Naruto could feel Daku speeding on the ground far under him, running full tilt to keep up with his air borne master. The seal board was Naruto's proud creation because if it was on a stable environment he would be able to effectively rival Daku's speed a little, actually providing a small speed challenge to the dark creation. The dark shadow didn't know why his master insisted on doing what he was about to do but he would stand beside him through it all.

The blonde boy planned on invading Hidden Star.

The Star village had tried to invade Wave a day ago, but his country's protection stood strong, forcing the village to try retreat and lick their wounds. The invasion had been unprovoked but he could only assume that that village had gotten wind of Wave's advancements and wanted to capitalize on it by stealing it for themselves. Naruto was not the sort of person that encouraged senseless violence, but if what he considered dear was threatened in any way he would go through hell for revenge. Star had managed to hold a few Wave merchants hostage before they tried to infiltrate, violently interrogating them on how to gain entry into the village. There were a total of thirty merchants that were intercepted in the route and only three survived but with major traumatic memories of what had been done to them. It was only through Haku's regular patrol around Wave's perimeter did he get wind of what was happening, the ice release user knew he couldn't face up to the legions of Star shinobi and save the merchants so he was forced to report it to Daku, who was in the leaders tower doing a routine staff inspection with the Head of Staff, Tsunami.

When they had arrived it was much too late; only three remained and were left for dead as the Star shinobi began their march to Wave. Daku had prioritized the merchants rescue over keeping the invaders away, so he commanded the demon brothers and Haku to go and retrieve them, sending a Marsh medic ninja with them to keep them alive for a while longer until they returned to the country's main hospital. He would have expected Iwa to attempt sooner than Star. The difference between what Konoha had tried to do and what Star had done was that the leaf village didn't murder civilians to get information; if Star hadn't killed them he wouldn't be flying full tilt to Hidden Star to wage a silent war. At that very moment he expected at most fifty shinobi from each minor village to be present far from the Star village's border.

He swerved his board expertly and exploded through a cloud before he dived down, looking like a comet plummeting to the ground. Star village wasn't that much far from Konoha or Waterfall so it only took him four hours of flying to get there. His eyes spied the camps of ninja look up to the sky at him and prepare for what they thought was an attack. Naruto squinted his eyebrows and spun in a small circle so his decent wouldn't be too hard. Dust exploded under his board and the ground caked into glass, he stood up straight and looked around at the gathered shinobi. He unsealed the leader's wide hat and set it on his head silently, making sure to put his goggles around his neck. Slowly all the shinobi around him silently fell onto their knees, he spared a small smile at them and hovered slowly through them to where he could only assume the leaders tent was. He was proven right when Samsato and Tu, leaders of Fang and Marsh respectively, walked out to greet him.

Both leaders smirked at seeing him hovering to them and whipped off their wide brimmed hats, Naruto doing the same. The boy was only a head shorter than them but with his robe on he didn't look any less the leader he was. Naruto stepped off his board and commanded it into his left hand as he stretched his right forward to shake the leaders in front of him.

"Naruto-dono," Tu said as he shook her hand, he nodded back his respect and shook Samsato's as firmly, he winced only a little at the strength of the hand shake. He was led into the tent, making sure to look over his shoulder to Daku to stay back for a while to socialize with the forces there; he waved to Zabuzza and Haku, who were sitting in the midst of a few Chill shinobi,

The tent only had a large scale map of Hidden Star that they had gotten from some shinobi posing as merchants that had entered the village. Why Star didn't use this as a way of invading Wave he would never know. He placed his leader's hat on the edge of the map and shrugged off his light blue robe, Samsato started the discussion, "pleasant night for an invasion,"

Tu chuckled and shook her head in exasperation, "that's Naruto-dono's call; it could be an invasion or a total wipe out of life there,"

Naruto frowned slightly and thought deeply on what he wanted to say, "I want the Star leader dead, that's for sure, but I also want those directly responsible for the merchant kidnapping executed," he scratched his chin, "anyone below jounin should also die, maybe, but that is only if they do not want to willingly flee to Wave,"

"How would you know if they don't want to destroy Wave from within?" the Fang leader grunted as he fingered his jounin flak jacket,

"I'm good with seals," was the simple answer but he decided to elaborate when they looked at him curiously, "I broke up the loyalty seal and discovered that if I layer it with four more loyalty seals it would turn into a truth seal, if I put it on their foreheads they would be forced to tell the truth," Rat had learnt this the hard way after another interrogation, but on the plus side he was now trusted more with information. The decision on what to do with Star was purely Naruto's decision because it was Wave that had been attacked,

"How are those merchants, by the way," Tu asked as she stood opposite Naruto at the table,

"Rehabilitating well, from reports from your medics, Tu-dono," he had made sure that he had fully compensated the family of the dead shinobi from his personal account as well as ensure them that they would get retribution, Daku had personally told them that he would have the Wave leader strengthen the barriers around the country even though they weren't necessarily defective. Very slowly the people of Wave were finding out that Daku wasn't the true leader but more of the leader's emissary, though they didn't seem to mind that much seeing as all Naruto had done was to advance the country.

"That's good to hear. When do you want to launch the attack?" Samsato asked,

"I just need to know how big Star is,"

Tu hummed in thought and gave a rough estimate, "why would you want to that?"

"I want to place seals on the edges of Hidden Star to make sure no one flees," he stuck his hands into his pockets and pulled out a dozen small cardboard cards with a simple barrier seal on them, "what do you propose the ninja outside should do?"

Samsato spoke up before Tu, "the Smoke should take the side with the Chill since their jutsu complement each other," Tu nodded in agreement, seeing as her guard had always chosen to fight with Kitsuen's guard in any joint mission they had, their combination jutsu were things to behold and in all honesty so were all the other Smoke and Chill shinobi. Both village ninja worked very well together,

"My ninjas should attack from their north gate while Zabuzza, Haku and Daku should sneak in and start the attack on the ninja. We can take on the leader ourselves," Tu added, "Zabuzza and the other two's main function is to draw attention inwards while the Fang and Waterfall sneak in from behind, the Smoke and Chill are just to make sure no Star ninja escapes,"

"Sounds like a solid plan, but I want to infiltrate with Zabuzza and those two. I think Samsato-dono should lead the shinobi attacking the south gate and Tu-dono should lead from the north gate. I apologize if I sound rude but I want to kill Akahoshi, personally,"

"That's all good and fine but we still need a way to get passed the gases around Hoshigakure," Samsato said and crossed his arms, "that thing is ridiculously potent, y'know. Wind jutsu can't affect it,"

"We can try going underground, the Marsh shinobi should know a few tunnelling jutsu," Tu nodded to confirm what Naruto had said, "we start from this camp, I can go in with Zabuzza and Haku from the sky with my iron bubble, I'm sure it would hold up against the gas; Daku doesn't need air to breath and he can regenerate if he loses something," Tu nodded again and walked out to begin directing the shinobi on the plan, but not before Naruto handed her the barrier cards and where to place them around Star. Samsato looked at Naruto and shrugged,

"Do you know about the Star in Hidden Star," he smirked a little at what he had said,

"Yes, that it provides the person training under it with immense abilities and strength,"

"Is it worth stealing?"

"There is no one noteworthy that has been known to use enhanced abilities from Hoshigakure, I don't trust it,"

"We should observe it then," Naruto nodded in agreement and walked out with the Fang leader to see how the ninja were preparing. He could see the wolf partners from Fang and the dog partners from Chill digging into the ground deep enough for a tunnelling jutsu to not be too loud when it would be used. Zabuzza bowed slightly as he walked up to him,

"Have you been informed on your role?"

"Hai, Naruto-sama, I'm with you and Daku," Naruto glanced at Haku, who was walking beside his master, and received a nod, "how are we going to get into the air? Jumping?"

To answer that Naruto whipped out his seal board and dropped it on the ground, it hovered without any hesitation, he flipped through a small set of hand seals, " _expand_ ," the board shivered and widened before their eyes until it looked almost as big as an apple cart, "we're using this, don't worry, it will hold our weight," Haku took a seat on the edge and began to idly twirl an ice senbon in his hands; he had his hunter ninja mask on his head and was garbed in full Wave chunin hunter ninja uniform,

Samsato waved goodbye to Naruto so he could also go and supervise the shinobi he was to command, leading them all the way around Hoshi so they too can begin their own underground tunnel. Zabuzza crossed his arms and looked over the ninja that were scampering around the camp to clear it up as well as those that were pushing through the ground with earth jutsu. He looked Naruto, who was plain faced as he ran his hands detection seal over his body to make sure he had all his things on his body. The boy was much shorter than him and didn't seem all that intimidating if he had not seen all the boy had done in Wave, with all the loyal reformed ROOT shinobi under his command and all the major breakthrough in fuinjutsu he alone had done. He had no intention to try his strength against someone that had a semi-indestructible shield around him and a repertoire or seals he could only dream of. He coughed to get the young boys attention, Naruto looked at him with a raised eyebrow, "I have a small favour to ask, Naruto-sama,"

"Go on," the blonde boy answered as he tightened the bandages around his ankles and fixed on his forearm protectors; he didn't know how to fight well with the Armadillo fighting style but he wanted to have a contingency plan if someone managed to get into his iron bubble,

"I defected Kiriagakure because of my attempt on the Mizukage's life. My sources are saying that the war there is still going strong and that the rebels are losing,"

"You want me to help the rebels," Naruto finished as he too sat on his hovering board, Zabuzza nodded slowly, "ok then,"

"Ok?"

"Yes, ok, I won't go personally but from what I've read the current Mizukage is a jinchuriki of the three tailed turtle. I'll give you my best tailed beast negating seals and Daku as back up if you need help. I just need you to agree with the rebel leader to ally with Wave in trade," the demon of the bloody mist stayed silent but still agreed to what Naruto had said, "your loyalty to Wave can be terminated if you wish to return to Kiri,"

"I'd like to stay," Haku murmured, his eyes still looking at the ninja digging through the ground with powerful tunnelling jutsu, "Wave is my home now, Zabuzza-sama,"

"I'm staying with Haku then; I've grown quite fond of Wave,"

Naruto chuckled and rolled his right wrist, where his chakra beam seal was tattooed in, "the Mizukage is a clear S rank ninja so I'll give you my latest work, my Ultimate chakra high seal. Use it only in dire situations; it enhances your chakra density and that would in turn enhance your stamina and your jutsu. It would only last for an hour so use it well," he motioned for the tall man to come and he stood up smoothly, he reached up and tapped Zabuzza's neck with his index finger, a seal matrix spiralled to life immediately after contact, "I'm giving you now in case you need it in the invasion,"

The man rubbed the seal on his neck but didn't feel any change in himself, he would have to test run the seal in the fight that was definitely to come, "thank you, Naruto-sama," the boy just smiled lightly and waved, sitting back down on the hovering board. Naruto had come up with the idea for the seal after getting a small glimpse at the seal on Mitarashi Anko's neck. He had found the woman speeding through the village for one reason he couldn't care to know but his eyes were drawn to her neck where the cursed seal lay, he followed her as silently as he could and got a better look at it from afar. The seal was obviously causing the woman pain, making him wonder why she still had it. He took the design and broke it down, like he did to any other seal. There was a slave/master seal, a loyalty seal, a torture seal, a nature chakra beacon seal, an explosive seal and lastly a tracking seal in that one cursed seal. There was also a different seal on top of the cursed seal to nullify its effects, probably done by Jiraiya. He gave the man some credit though; the seal would have taken him days to study and half a day of perfect chakra control to force off. The cursed seal was defective; the only fully functioning part was the explosive seal, the rest were deformed to the extent that if the containment seal was ever removed Anko would be put in mind numbing pain, she would probably succumb to the nature chakra being forced into her.

His own seal kept only the nature chakra beacon and reversed the torture seal, making it so that only a drop of nature chakra into the system would be barely felt and the reverse torture seal put the person into perfect bliss, making any sort of pain feel much too pleasant. In a way if Zabuzza was to be beaned on the head with a war hammer it would feel like he had been kissed by kami in the best way possible, that was if the person could even get to him to hit him. The pleasure would transform into thick chemicals in his body that would prevent him from feeling the pain and healing him enough to retaliate. His chakra would then be mixed with nature chakra, making his own chakra incredibly dense.

Just like any other seal he had created he would first test it out on himself, extensively. This was to make sure that he was to administer it to anyone else he would have a clear mind leaving the person alone. He had found out that he needed to be in dire need of chakra before he could effectively use the seal after the first few hours and the only effect was the seal turning his movements into something reminiscent to a slug. He had theorized that if your chakra was at ninety nine per cent and you added a thickening agent, the seal, into yourself the chakra would be too heavy and dense to carry around, but if you were at about thirty per cent and you made use of the seal it would thicken your chakra and you would still have some room to move in your chakra capacity. A simple camp fire ninjutsu would turn into a tremendous forest fire ninjutsu, or a simple lightning bug zapper ninjutsu would turn to a giant zapper ninjutsu. The possibilities of making use of a jutsu like the chidori with the seal could turn into a something akin to a super sledge hammer made out of lightning that was also very light.

The ninja digging the tunnels had to make sure that the tunnels were deep enough for the gas to not seep inside, and as a double measure the Smoke ninja spewed thick smoke to the roof of the tunnels to push back any gas. Naruto could feel Daku in a tunnel pushing hard against the rocks blocking him. It would be two hours later before the tunnels were ready, not yet through to the other side but with a well-timed punch they would be. The youngest village leader stood up and got onto his seal board, "on my cue," he said to some shinobi that had come out to tell him that they were ready, Zabuzza got onto the board and it began to steadily rise into the sky, Daku blurred through the gases.

Zabuzza and Haku kept a firm grasp on the seal board and looked down with focused eyes; they were just above the gas around Hoshi that didn't cover the sky,

"Let's go," Naruto said as he grabbed both of their shoulders, his blue iron bubble covered them and the board dived down to the centre of the village. Fire blasted from under the board and he could see the Hoshi shinobi scampering around. Naruto grit his teeth as he felt the air around his bubble tighten and he smashed into the ground.

 _Boom!_

Dust exploded around and covered the ninja that had come out to investigate. All covered their mouths and noses as they cautiously walked to the impact zone of the 'comet'. The crater was billowing a harsh red fire as they looked inside, only seeing the 'rock' from the fire. A male ninja was about to call out a water jutsu until he heard a single, quiet word from inside the crash landed comet.

" _Push"_ and all hell broke loose. The force of the iron blue bubble's ability threw all of the shinobi at the edge of the crater in all directions. Haku leaped out of the crater and disappeared in a crowd of Hoshi shinobi, Zabuzza followed in a different direction. Naruto flipped out of the hole in the ground and swung his silver snake rope forward, tying up three ninja and channelling wind chakra though it, tearing the poor ninja to pieces. He whipped out his second silver snake rope and spun around in a tight circle, slashing anyone that attempted to get to him. He looked up at a ninja that was about to dive bomb him, he flicked his wrist, forcing only lightning to come out of the tip and slashed at the ninja. The person seemed very adept in fighting; he spun in the air and a wind vortex surrounded him, protecting him from the lightning. Naruto didn't know how to summon any other affinity naturally but with seals he could do that very well, so he was surprised to see his counter negated so easily. He whipped his ropes and both latched onto the ground, grabbing the ground and throwing it into ninja around him.

The wind vortex cancelled and the ninja flashed through a few hand seals as he came down n Naruto, _"Wind release: Wind scythe!"_ he threw his attack and Naruto's bubble defended against the attacks perfectly. The Hoshi ninja were thickening around him, making him struggle a little for space,

" _Push"_ the unexpected defensive attack resulted in the shinobi around him flying away, he put his ropes back into his pocket and removed his snake chain, the seal creation was just a plain silver chain with a small hook at the tip. He spun it in his hand and flung it at the lone ninja that hadn't been thrown away, the ninja leaped away and darted to him, Naruto pulled his chain back and darted to the ninja as well with his rectangular shield leading. He slid under a right hook and commanded his snake chain to wrap around the ninjas ankle, he pulled back and smashed his shield against the unfortunate opponent. The person was blasted far away, very much fast asleep. He calmly looked to where he guessed the leader resided and began his walk there, having to whip his chain around to put the attacking ninja into deep sleep. He could see Daku and Zabuzza carving a path of death through the ninja they were up against, making sure to only knock out chunin and genin, leaving only a few select jounin injured.

Then a grave silence fell over the battle ground, the Hoshi shinobi stopped fighting and created a path to allow their village leader through. Akahoshi frowned heavily at the too cool child before him and clenched his fist,

"Wave shinobi?"

"Yes. You attacked my country,"

The man snorted out a cocky laugh, "You're the leader of that place?"

"Yes," his answer silenced him,

"Really?"

"Really," Naruto cocked his head to the side, "we would have allied with Hoshigakure if you merely asked,"

"We take what we want,"

"That's not good-"

"Tough, we're shinobi," the man smirked, "I won't let you run away, you know,"

"I won't let you live, you know," was the retort,

"You can try," Akahoshi began his slow, intimidating walk forward and Naruto too began to walk forward. The fights resumed as the ground exploded, shinobi poured out and began engaging the Star shinobi. Both village leaders met in the middle in a ground shaking forearm clash, the only reason Naruto could even do that was because he was on his seal board. Naruto knew that he couldn't face up to the man in a straight up fight so he decided not to hold back, he flipped away on his board and summoned a whirlwind of fire explosive tags from his sleeves silently. Akahoshi's eyes widened and he flashed through some hand seals,

" _Earth release: Earth wall,"_ he slammed his palms on the ground and a wall of rock shot out of the ground and intercepted the fire bombs, the technique didn't hold it back for too long and broke through but the man wasn't there anymore. Akahoshi flickered to sight behind him, making Naruto's eyes widen a little, and yelled a jutsu at his still turned back, _"Wind release: Fourth wall wind tunnel!"_ Akahoshi seemed to have realized that Naruto wasn't one to take lightly; that was an A rank attack easy. Sharp wind smashed into the side of Naruto's blue shield and pressed him in, squeezing him tightly, another wind attack smashed from under him and the boy strained from holding the wind attack back.

Naruto flipped through a two hand seals, _"Substitution jutsu!"_ a poof of chakra smoke erupted around him and in his place was a log of wood that was summarily smashed to bits. The E rank jutsu could be considered useless in most circumstances but not in the situation Naruto was in, at that very moment Naruto was very glad to have known the basics. Akahoshi landed on the ground neatly and spun around in time for a thick pillar of hazy blue lightning to smash into his chest, _"Lightning release: Chakra beam!"_. The attack blasted the man away and he was pushed through a residential building, where the house was very much empty because the civilians had evacuated. The man huffed and pushed himself back up using a kitchen counter, he cursed at the fist sized hole that sizzled on his chest; it would have been life threatening if he had not chosen to wear an extra thick jounin flak jacket, he could see his burn skin from the hole.

Again he anticipated another lightning attack but this time he didn't attempt to face it head on; he ran up the side of the wall to dodge the attack and traced it to the source, finding Naruto standing in front of the hole in the wall. Naruto kept his right hand trained on Akahoshi as lightning arced around him and zapped at his opponent, he had to put his left hand on his right to keep his arm steady and his tree root seals on full blast to make sure he wasn't blown away by his own attack. Akahoshi wizened up when he realized that Naruto could keep up the thick stream of lightning without faltering from any sort of strain. He summoned five rock clones and commanded them to scatter to confuse Naruto, allowing him to slip out and run to the leader's tower. Naruto cancelled his lightning chakra beam and whipped out both silver snake ropes, spinning around in a tight circle on his seal board while channelling wind chakra to tear through three attacking clones. Naruto commanded the ropes to dig sharply into the ground and grab hold of a rock clone, pulling him into the ground and cutting it up with more wind chakra. Naruto attempted to fly after Akahoshi but he could feel a weight on his bubble shield, he looked to where it was and frowned at the clone there. He flung his arm at the clone and shards of sharp paper fire bombs flew out to the clone much too quickly for him to dodge, the paper sliced through the clone and returned back into Naruto's sleeves.

The attack that he had used made immense use of extra thin ninja wire to keep hold of the paper bombs and complicated hand gestures to make it seem like they were floating back into his sleeves.

Without hesitating Naruto blasted after the original Akahoshi and just barely got out of the building, he slipped a glowing pink rock into his tattered flak jacket pocket. Naruto was forced to swerve away when he saw hazy pink feathers fly at him, the attack cut through his blue iron bubble but only by half way. He winced when he realized that the attack could have gone through his ultimate defence. He grunted when a massive weight smashed against the right side of his blue shield, he spied a pink boar disperse and more boars stampeded to him, seemingly appearing from around Akahoshi, the man was smirking cockily at the strain on Naruto's face. A pink haze appeared around the man and a thick pink tail shot to Naruto but before it could reach Naruto switched with a log of wood.

Naruto felt like squashed his frustration as he darted to Akahoshi with his chakra beam emitting arcs of lightning around his right arm, a six foot long lightning bolt that could serve as a sword. He thrust his pure lightning weapon at his opponent and anticipated the pink boar that intercepted him; he shoved the creature away with his shield and spun away from a pink tail that descended down to him, not wanting to test his shield against it. He grasped his right wrist and sliced a few feathers that came at him, mentally sighing when he managed to keep them away. He then leaped over a pink tail and jumped over a small stamped of massive boars, before he pointed his right hand at Akahoshi and shot another long beam of dangerous lightning at him. Akahoshi raised a thick wall of pink star chakra from around him to block the fatal attack, allowing Naruto to charge up another chakra beam, but this time it was a perfect combination off all chakra affinities.

" _Chakra beam!"_ Naruto yelled from far above Akahoshi and the blue chakra attack warped out of his seal, shooting down to the man. The pink shield couldn't hold out too much against the hammer like strike; the man was blasted through the ground. Naruto tucked his arms and legs to his chest and fell down, fully cased in his iron bubble. It was like a ball of thick steel had just dropped on a man; the sound of bones cracking resonated around the empty fight zone. Akahoshi grit his teeth and pink star chakra flared around him, a pink elephant formed and slammed his head against the hazy blue bubble around Naruto. The boy looked at the animal and shot it down with a short burst of pure blue chakra. He looked down and quietly cursed when he didn't find his opponent. He cancelled his blue bubble and looked to where the man now stood, albeit with slightly shaking feet and heavily supporting his ribs,

Naruto ran at him as he caught the man reaching into his jacket for the pink meteorite; he didn't want to know what would happen if the man directly used the star but he didn't want to find out. He whipped out a silver rope and threw it at Akahoshi; time seemed to move at a crawl, the man flung himself backwards, away from the rope, and pushed the star into the gaping hole in his flak jacket from Naruto's lightning attack.

Mid chunin speed wasn't enough to prevent this.

Immediately after a pink stone merged with his chest a thick pink dragon exploded to life and barrelled to Naruto, and the boy could only use his right rectangular shield to block the dragon. He was blown away and embedded into a wall, the dragon dispersed but another formed and came after him. Naruto grunted and realized that he now knew how Tsunade felt when she was embedded in a wall; he scampered out of the hole and managed to dodge the dragon. Akahoshi seemed to have lost control of his own body, pink chakra shrouded around him but he couldn't use the chakra to attack on his own will. His eyes widened in realization of what that meant; the stone had a life of its own.

Naruto ran lengthwise away from the toxic fire the dragon was spewing out of its mouth. He leaped forward and in his last place was an explosive tag he had used his feet to draw into the ground. The fiery explosion that had turned the one tails into glass only distracted the dragon and slowed it down; Naruto's eyes honed to his main opponent and a plan formed in his mind. He front flipped to dodge a spikey pink tendril that came at him from Akahoshi; the attack dug into the ground and erupted beside Naruto, the boy leaped away from the attack that wormed through the ground after him. He held a single hand seal and muttered, _"Multiple shadow clone jutsu,"_ fifty or so clones burst into life around him and fearlessly used themselves to confuse the tendril and the dragon, mixing around quickly so they would lose sight of the real Naruto. The real Naruto bent down and slammed his palm into the ground and a blue seal spiralled out of his palm, appearing on the ground; but the possessed Akahoshi didn't see this.

The man moved against his will and summoned hoards of animals to run through the swarm of shadow clones. He used his bare hands to tear through the clones until he finally got to the seal on the ground, the real Naruto, who was hiding far behind his clones smirked at this. The seal lit up and the man froze abruptly; you could even see the veins on his neck and in his arms that tried to pull him out of the seal trap. Naruto held a _rat_ hand seal and the pink chakra could be visibly seen draining out of him into the seal.

Akahoshi yelled in pain as the pink chakra left his body forcefully and entered the seal; worst part was that he could get a good grip on it to keep it from leaving him. Naruto refrained from sighing too loudly and he sped to the trapped man, he pulled his right arm back and his chakra beam seal encased his hand in buzzing wind chakra, he thrust it forward and punched clean through Akahoshi's head, making blood splatter against the young boys face, right arm and some parts of his body. The place was silent as the man's yells were silenced abruptly and ever so slowly Akahoshi fell backwards.

Naruto sighed in relief and closed his eyes, allowing his heart to calm down. The fight was not something he wasn't expecting seeing as he fought an A rank village leader on his own. His sky blue eyes looked around and he sent a half-hearted thumb up to Daku and the two village leaders that had witnessed the fight. He knelt down and unsealed a thick piece of paper, he slapped it onto the seal on the ground and watched as pink chakra began to slowly siphon into the paper. He sliced open Akahoshi's chest with a kunai and squinted his eyes on how bright the star shone; he took out another thick piece of paper and sealed the pink meteorite inside, not wanting to touch it.

The boy looked at the pink chakra entering the paper and stood up as the leaders landed in front of him,

" _What_ a fight huh," Samsato said and clasped Naruto's shoulder, the boy chuckled tiredly and poked up the glowing pink seal with his sneaker covered foot, he sealed it in a different sealing scroll than the star, "I would have liked to get in on the action,"

"It was a matter of pride, you understand right?" Naruto said and the man nodded in understanding, Tu stared at the boy before she grinned and also clasped his shoulder familiarly,

"Hoshigakure is under the village alliance's control," she said and led the boy to where all the ninja of the village knelt down in defeat under the watchful gaze of the remaining invading ninja, Naruto smiled lightly at the ninja and dusted down his shirt of the dirt, "The civilians are being informed on what has happened."

"They weren't too happy about it," Samsato finished,

"They'll get used to it," Naruto said as he passed a kneeling Star jounin, the man's shoulder was sagged in defeat and he didn't even bother to look at the person that had passed him, "Any casualties?"

"Hai, ten Chill and Smoke, fifteen Marsh, twelve Waterfall and six Fang," she ticked off from memory, "Zabuzza and Haku are fine but the demon brothers were severely injured, they are being treated at the moment by my medics,"

"That's good to hear. Now we have to find a way to administer this place. I propose we divide this place up and ship them to where they chose to go to between us, the problem is that most of them won't like to move to Chill," he brought out the five layered loyalty seal as he got to a raised platform where a Waterfall jounin was looking over the kneeling Star shinobi with critical, unnerving eyes. The man bowed to the leaders and shuffled off the platform, "also, we don't separate families," he whispered to the other leaders and they too nodded, getting what he was saying. The family was the smallest unit in a society, and if a family was broken up then it would foster hate for whoever had broken them up, if hate grew then the village alliance would have a problem with a hole in their security if the person was to ever become a ninja. Plus the Village alliance weren't necessarily bad but they did what any other village did, which was make a point that they were not to be taken lightly. Not that all the ninja they had already killed didn't have families, they knew what they were getting into when they became ninja in the first place. Naruto raised his hand for silence and the ninja looked up at him, "this could go either way; you could willingly subject yourselves for interrogation or we will assume you want revenge and we'll just kill you on the spot. Who wants to go first?"

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Wind release: Fourth wall wind tunnel: this is an A rank ninjutsu that requires an immense control over wind chakra. It is similar to the**_ _ **'Wind release: Dead man's telescope'**_ _ **and the**_ _ **'Wind release: North wind'**_ _ **in the sense that if used properly the user can have a limited control over gravity, except this is the watered down version of both of the jutsu counterparts combined. It squeezes the victim with harsh wind on all sides until the person pops under stress. This jutsu was created by the Sandaime Hokage after witnessing its counterparts being performed by the Sandaime Uzukage.**_

 **Let me get a few things straight; Naruto couldn't depend on his shield to hold up against pink meteorite chakra because the pink chakra was stronger than his normal chakra, especially since he didn't use a drop of Kyuubi's chakra into his shield. Plus he would rather test his strength against someone than hide behind a shield like he did with Itachi. Another thing is that Naruto is fully prepared to flee Konoha if they ever find out the truth about him and they try to take his possessions away; if news goes to Tsunade about Naruto's true identity as the leader of Wave country then it could go either way, she could go with the diplomatic approach or she could force him to stay (which we all know isn't really possible). Next is that Naruto seemed to take command of the Hoshigakure invasion because it was Wave that was invaded not any of the other villages in the alliance, the other villages gave him troops to lead because it is part of the alliance, and also because he would have done the same. Naruto needs more ninja in Wave and if he has to take them from their home villages and brain wash them he would, though he won't do that. If the remaining Star shinobi wish to work under him he would still have to keep them under probation and stuff.**

 **NOTE: the strongest attack in Naruto's chakra beam is the combination of chakra beam, not the separate chakra affinity chakra beam. Let's all forget about the Yin and Yang release for a moment and say that there are five chakra affinities (Wind, Earth, Water, Fire and Lightning. Yin and Yang can be like a general division). Naruto's lightning chakra beam only has one fifth of power, while his combined chakra beam has all of the power. Get me? It all just comes down to how well he uses the attacks.**

 **How did you all like the fight? I had already passed my set limit for a chapter that's why I didn't show how Haku and Zabuzza fought. This chapter is really long, 9,800 words long.**

 **Don't forget to drop a review please; I really like to know what you all think about this chapter.**

 **Also try reading my other stories, and yes I will shamelessly advertise my stories. XD**

 **Watch out for the next chapter,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	13. Chapter 13

**Yo!**

 **Thanks for all of your reviews, they are all wicked awesome!**

 **This chapter is going to have some deep themes. The darkness is starting to really come out now…**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 13

Interrogating all of those people took a really long time; Naruto had to stretch his Uzumaki stamina so that he would stay awake through each of them.

Not all of the Star shinobi liked the idea of being interrogated and some had even killed themselves personally. Naruto couldn't bring himself to care that much for the fools that chose honour over life, his business concerned all those that wanted to stay alive and those that wanted to protect their family. He had given the interrogation seal to over ten of each allied shinobi to interrogate the remaining Star shinobi. He had created shadow clones to look over the proceedings that happened in residential buildings, the ninja were forced to walk in single files and wait their turn. This would have been downgrading to most if not the fact that they would do anything to stay alive. Yes, their job was to protect their home but they had failed; they couldn't kill themselves like the samurai did because ninja did not see every failing as a scar on their honour, merely a scar on their conscience.

The remaining ninja had already come to the conclusion that they would be pawned off as slaves but were all surprised to hear that they were having a chance to redeem themselves, after hearing that their dead leader, Akahoshi, had been secretly training very young genin under the Star's radiation and that the council had fully approved of this. Knowing that they had been protecting a home that wasn't protecting their children was a tough pill to take. The ninja were given an option to choose between the six villages that had invaded Star; the boy and the two adult leaders had given them a full day to think about their decision either on their own or with their families, and those that had tried to run away during this time were summarily killed. In the end it all came down to those that were smart; most chose to move to Wave because it was even more conducive than their own village, with all the free land to farm and all the natural resources caked in the ground. The next highest Star families chose to relocate to Waterfall, then to Fang, then to Marsh then to Smoke, and finally to Chill, and the last were only for the adrenaline junkies.

It had been explained to them that if they ever wanted to return back into active shinobi service they were to be put under constant surveillance and seals would be put on them to keep them in line, although the last part wasn't told to them. They had agreed to the leader's stipulations and what would be called as the 'Great Star Moving' in the history books happened. More ninja from each village alliance came to assist in protecting the moving families and to ensure they all stayed in line, Yumi had also arrived and had playfully told the other three leaders that she didn't expect that many people to want to move to Chill. Through the underground tunnels they moved out and after clearing out all the contents of knowledge and of monetary value, sharing them as well, Star was left as empty as a ghost town.

Most would classify forcing families that had spent generations in Hoshigakure to move as evil, and Naruto wouldn't mind to be called that, but then it was always the retaliation that was noticed and not the initial attack that caused the retaliation. He would defend his actions by saying that he had shown he wouldn't be soft handed to those that threatened his home, Wave.

The relocated Star families were given newly built accommodations, either in hotels or in modern sized apartments that were situated outside the wall but still very much inside the protective barrier. Wave, despite still going under intense rehabilitation, still had acres and acres of free land to make use of, even after creating up to fifty training grounds out of the free land. Not that he wanted to use up all of his land, it was that he was realizing just how vast the land in Wave country could be; he had discovered an underground water source that was different from the sea a few months after he had freed Wave and had immediately made the water source the main place clean water could be distributed to the houses, he had discovered that if he placed absorbing seals on steel roofs then it would immediately turn to solar power absorbing seals that could power houses if the electricity grid ever failed.

He was proud of all he had done for Wave as well as the people that had helped him get Wave to where it was. He had personally shown the relocated Star families to their apartments, and if they chose to stay in a hotel he gladly obliged. There was a wall that separated Wave from the vast farm land, he called the place within 'Inner wave' or Wave central; it was known mainly for industrial and business reasons, while there was a smaller wall outside, protected by seals cast from the walls around inner Wave, that was mainly populated by those that wanted to farm or fish, or those that preferred the fresh air. There were sentries placed around both inner and outer Wave. For the families that had academy students that stayed in outer Wave it was just a matter of sending them to the inner Wave gate; it only took a longer time to get to the academy. Outer Wave was more populated than inner Wave and this was by choice, seeing as the people were more used to staying near the sea; though if they were traders they had to make the journey inside.

The next day he had called around all the Star genin, chunin and jounin that wanted to remain ninja and put them to sleep, applying seals on their body similar to Rat's that made sure the proper authorities were notified if they were doing things out of bound. They were given temporary tattoos that they had to renew every three months if they didn't want to be locked out of the island country. The civilians were also given these temporary tattoos with the same stipulations; he fully expected to catch at least a dozen people that wanted to betray his country, and he would make sure to use them as examples for the rest. The ninja would be inducted back into the shinobi system but this time into the island country's system and were given missions in about a month, after intense observation; a regular three man squad was led by a Daku clone Henge'd to look like a normal person. Naruto looked through his country's accounts and predicted that there would be a great rise in profit in about four months or so if the Star shinobi stayed smart.

He didn't expect any retaliatory strike from Bear country's daimyo, seeing as he had sent a brief letter on what had happened and what he was going to do to Star. So if any came he would go back with more allied shinobi to destroy Bear country.

Naruto, though he could be classified as the youngest village leader in the history of the elemental nations, wasn't foolish or naïve enough to believe that the Hoshi people would be welcomed with open arms by the people of Wave, so he had sent out a letter three days before the weekend by Daku and had received replies from the village leaders on how to reduce segregation and marginalization to the barest minimum. Shibuki had proposed that Star should be given a particular district where they can call their own as well as security against attack from others, the leaders agreed to this and Naruto had already done this by giving the Star apartments within outer Wave. Funny enough it was Kitsuen that had proposed what the leaders referred to as 'The Act of Good Will'. Even though Star had launched the first attack on Wave he couldn't blame all the people for it, and they wanted the people of Star to know that even though they were not in their birth homes they would not be treated any different as long as they did what was right.

The first thing the Act outlined also spoke about the district, saying that it should be called the Star district and that any Wave person caught vandalizing property would be severely penalized, irrespective of age or class. There would be a curfew there that no Wave born person should be seen there unless he had been given express permission by Naruto, Daku or a Star elder. The next thing was that all the Hoshi people would be given jobs according to their specializations, and if they wanted jobs in the first place. This would be done equally and without bias and if there was a problem the person was free to bring it to the leader or to Frog and it would be resolved. Another was that the very young Star children that wanted to attend school would do so whenever they wanted, like any Wave person, since the teachers there were primarily from Chill and Fang there would be no division. The Star people were to be made aware of the Act and that they too had to show that they didn't mean any harm, that if they truly wanted to stay in peace then they would have to respect the law. There were more things outlined but the last major ones were that Hoshi was to have at least two council members in Naruto's council and that Hoshi people would be given chances to go and visit their ancestral home in the deserted Hoshigakure, probably stay there for a limited time, and this was only if things ran as smooth as possible.

The council consisted mainly of civilians for civilian affairs while the shinobi consisted of Naruto, the head of the council, Daku, his chief advisor, Frog and Rat. The Star was to collectively choose at least two people to represent their civilians and their shinobi, though the shinobi didn't have any final say, just like the shinobi under Wave.

Kitsuen may have been a laughing, pot-bellied man but he had shown that he was truly Shibuki's age mate in wisdom.

Naruto would bring Wave and Star together little by little until all was under Wave. This may take decades to fully incorporate but the young leader was ready for the journey.

Just before he left his country he had personally signed three contracts for new buildings to be made in inner and outer Wave; two in inner and one in outer. The one in inner was to expand the shinobi and civilian library seeing as there was now more books and scrolls to put in there after all the missions taken and all the Star scrolls he had _appropriated_. Plus, most academy students, after hearing that the real leader was a young fuinjutsu master had wanted to take a hand in the subtle art and learn it as well; Naruto predicted that he would soon take up a genin team and train them in about four months. The other contract was for two more ships to be built, adding to the nine present, and those three functioned as boats that would transport natural resources to the other allied villages. There was only one ship that was performing that function so Naruto could see the wisdom of building two more to help with the work load. The ships would the resources to Waterfall, where they would take what they needed, and would voyage to Marsh, where they would stop at the very edge so they wouldn't get stuck in the sludge. The resources in the ship would be moved to the newly constructed trains, after Marsh had taken their own share, and the train would move to Fang, then to Smoke and would finally pass through underground, well lit train tunnels to Chill. So far the trains only needed a week of maintenance every month, according to the train's main technician.

The other inner Wave contract was proposed by a town elder he had set in charge of civilian affairs. He had brought to Naruto's attention that the orphanage, thought was rebuilt, had said that there were still some essential things deficient, like a baby's nursery and a recreational area. He signed the contract and after consulting his personal assistant slash official accountant Frog he had added some extra funds for better quality food and Waterfall teachers to teach the children who weren't old enough to enter the academy. He sighed as he looked over his country from on top of the leader's tower; all the citizens as well as the visitors knew his identity as the leader of Wave country but for some reason Konoha still wasn't aware. He shrugged; it was only a matter of time. It wasn't that he was afraid of the leaf invading Wave; if his seals could keep Jiraiya out then they were mighty strong enough.

There was some good news though; the civilian academy now had indigenous Wave teachers there to teach the students, Daku clones still supervised in the shadows but so far there was nothing going wrong. He would have to find out what would happen if the Star people were to bring their own children to the civilian academy and how they were treated. There was already a code of conduct being taught in the civilian teachers' school and this was also implemented in the civilian academy, especially to the teachers. It primarily talked about the fact that any indecent behaviour towards the students will not be tolerated, there will be no mixing home with work in the school, no partiality will be tolerated and offensive remarks to students and colleagues is punishable by suspension. So far the people weren't going against this. The Hoshi people had raised their thoughts on allowing their own civilians to enter the academy and the teaching schools and Naruto didn't reject the idea, just as long as they stayed within the stipulations he had set. There was a first, second and third year in the ninja academy and a first, second, third and fourth year in the junior civilian academy; schooling continued until the twelfth class for the civilians.

The blonde leader of Wave looked to his right when Frog leaped down with a thick book, the pudgy faced but slim bodied ANBU operative saluted with one hand, "when will you return, Naruto-sama?"

"In about a month, but I'll still have control from Konoha, Daku can represent me here,"

"Hai, Naruto-sama,"

"Where is Daku anyway?"

Frog flipped through the book in his hands, "he is seeing Rat-san in the academy; he wants to look over the students' progress,"

Naruto's smiled lightly at how much initiative Daku was taking into developing Wave, it seemed that the dark shadow was truly becoming loyal to Wave, not only to Naruto; and since it was two in the morning he was taking it very close to the extreme, not that Naruto minded, "tell me Frog, am I doing well? With Wave country,"

"The citizens certainly appreciate what you're doing," he was talking about the large gift basket he had found in his office the day he had returned. He had found out that he had a really big sweet tooth; the boy idly rubbed his belly and licked his lips. The civilian elders had even appointed the day they had been freed as Naruto day, after finding out Naruto's name of course.

The seal master shook his head in exasperation, "I like chocolate," was what he simply said,

"I know now, Naruto-sama," Frog chuckled,

"I need to start heading back to Konoha now. But before I go, how's the mall doing?"

"Construction would finish up in another month, Naruto-sama,"

"Good work," Naruto patted the man's shoulder; he was about the same height as the older man so he didn't reach up to do it. He summoned a small pill from his sleeve and after whispering _"expand"_ it widened into his seal board. He stepped onto the floating board. If he flew fast enough he would be able to get back in Konoha before sunrise and before the weekend fully started.

Be bent down a bit into position and zoomed off into the night.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

" **I've found out who the Wave leader is** ," Zetsu said after he had slipped out of the ground beside the mask wearing Uchiha, the man was speaking with Nagato and Konan alone in the throne room. The plant creation chuckled to himself, both sides of him did, "you'll never believe who it is,"

"Do tell," the red masked man murmured, idly noticing the little interest that had sparked in Pein's rinnegan eyes; he should be since ever since Wave had been liberated the few shinobi noted have been causing major problems for the Akatsuki, like the fact that Haku had gotten hold of the bounty of a high A rank ninja before Kakuzu, not for the first time either. Zabuzza had gone up against Kisame when both had crossed paths and both had to retreat when they couldn't best each other, ending in a perfect stalemate. The demon brothers had even managed to drastically reduce the number of puppets Sasori had and had severely poisoned Diedara when they had attempted to get their bounties, the only reason the pair of S rank nuke nin were even still alive was that the Suna missing ninja had taken the initiative to bring out one of his trump cards, the Third Kazekage. Wave didn't know it but they were slowing down the Akatsuki.

"It's the Kyuubi jinchuriki **, Naruto Uzumaki** ,"

Here Pein sat up with fractionally wide eyes, "the same child that had managed to escape capture from Kisame and Itachi?"

" **The one and** only leader-sama,"

"He is much more formidable than I thought," the rinnegan holder muttered and reclined back in his throne,

" **Hai, his experience in fuinjutsu is so deep** he was able to create a chakra restraint and draining seal that was hyper powered by simply **touching the ground**. I think he has more secrets than any **of us anticipated, leader-sama** ,"

"This would pose a problem if Kisame goes," seeing as if the man stepped on the boy's invisible trap he would be summarily drained, add in the fact he had Zabuzza under his command,

"That's not all; **since I wasn't able to infiltrate** Wave or any of the other villages they are allied with **I can only assume that their protective seals somehow keep** _ **me**_ **out** ," this part was true, the seals around the allied villages detect even the faintest amount of chakra, nature or otherwise, and repulse them if it didn't detect the Wave tattoo. Zetsu had learnt this the painful way since the seals also covered underground travel.

"Then he is incredibly strong for his age, maybe I underestimated him," Nagato mumbled,

Obito nodded, "Hai, what level seal master is he?"

"I think he is a **level nine and growing,** from what I witnessed and from the whispering among the **camps just before the invasion**. Plus, he helped fight Orochimaru with Tsunade and Jiraiya **, forcing him to retreat** ,"

"And this mysterious person Kisame was talking about, do you know who he is?"

"Naruto calls him Daku, his loyal shadow **. I can only assume he is one of Naruto's seal creations** ,"

"Which is understandable why he was able to best Kisame in taijutsu," Konan said quietly,

"Hai, so far he has no **limit in strength or speed** ,"

"So Rai should go with Itachi and Kisame to face off against him," Obito said,

"And it should only be when he is away from Wave, maybe if he is en route to Konoha; so Zabuzza wouldn't be there, but I think Daku would get there fast enough," Pein said,

"If all fails I want you to go and retrieve him, though with all these precautions his hopes of escaping is very slim," Obito grunted as he turned back to the window and watched the rain idly pour down, "he _may_ be able to beat three S rank ninja but he can only _hope_ to beat a god and his angel," he commanded the rinnegan holder but at the same time stoked the man's massive ego, Konan wasn't convinced,

"That is true,"

"Zetsu I want you to stay on Naruto and find out more about him, anything we have on him is of great value,"

"Hai," and Zetsu slipped into the ground and sped to Konoha,

The only reason Naruto was found out was that Zetsu had been sending small notes to Akahoshi, telling him that Wave was getting too strong and that strength belonged to Star. The man was already incredibly unstable so it only to a few weeks for his manipulations to sink in. The Wave leader would have to retaliate if he wanted to show everyone else that his country and in connection his alliance was not to be trifled with, if not he would look like a weak leader. The only problem lay in the fact that every other nation would find out about the invasion.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto squinted his eyes as he burst from a cloud a mile outside Konoha and began a speedy descent to the ground, he flipped through some hand seals and slipped straight into the ground as well as switching the affinity going into the board to earth. _"Earth release: Hiding like a mole technique,"_ the ground only rippled a little after entry and he held his breathe as he surfed full speed to the gate and successfully got in; just as the sun was splashing all around with golden orange rays he burst from the ground and the door to his apartment was thrown open by a very much ready Daku clone disguised as Naruto. The boy hastily cancelled the chakra going into his seal board and managed to dive onto a couch as his board bounced against the wall. He took his time to get his breath back into him, with his forearm covering his eyes.

He silently waved his hand and his shadow clone scampered to the kitchen to get a glass of water, Naruto gulped it down gratefully. There was silence in his house after that as he opened his eyes and sat down in his hover wheelchair the clone had slid to him, he controlled the chair to his desk and rolled his neck before he got down to work, again; he never needed that much sleep any way.

The blonde seal master had chosen to remain in his apartment since he wasn't too into the idea of staying in a large place like the Namikaze mansion, but he did go there occasionally to maintain it and to read through scrolls.

What he was working on was a way to easily communicate with the villages he was allied to without the need for Daku clones to run around or for summons. The idea was that he wanted each leader to have a special seal on their desk and on the their personal assistants desk, if they set a letter on the seal and called out the place they wanted the letter to got to clearly the seal would take the letter to a connecting junction seal then to the village the person originally wanted it to go, or maybe directly to the village the letter was meant to go. He had been brain storming on how to do this ever since he had first signed the alliance agreement with the other villages. He had thought about using an altered 'Flying thunder god seal' to do this seeing as the Yondaime was famed for being able to teleport himself around with just a flick of his wrist or an idle thought; but where was he going to get the seal to break it up in the first place, Minato had taken years to create that seal in the first place, how was he going to replicate it? That was what he thought _before_ he found out he was the Fourth Hokage's son.

The seal flying thunder god seal sat in front of the boy on a tri-pronged kunai. Naruto flexed his fingers and bent down to get to work. He separated the seal from the kunai carefully and examined the seal with his critical eyes, noting the intricacy his father had used to draw the seal. The seals there were much more complex than he had imagined, there was a level ten seal created by Minato himself that he hadn't gotten around to studying, but he still furrowed his eyebrows and broke the seal up into its basic strokes. There were a lot of layers on the seal Minato had to draw before he could brush against reality and teleport and Naruto had found out that each tri-prong was connected to each other through a sort of super advanced tracking seal. There was also an advanced chakra suppressor so that there wouldn't be a too big of a burst of chakra if he performed the jutsu, making the flying thunder god seal a sort of assassination technique as well. There was also a blood seal on each seal that was tied to Minato or Kushina, or anyone else it was keyed to; it was similar to the seals he had around Wave. This meant that if Naruto wanted to use the attack he would have to find a way to hack the seal and key his blood in _or_ he would have to draw his own; hacking the seal would be a feat on its own seeing as Minato was a better seal master than even Jiraiya, a level ten master. He was learning more from all he was seeing.

But Naruto wasn't an Uzumaki for nothing. He picked up the separated seal and hovered to a wall in his living room that was directly opposite to the door. He plastered the seal on the wall and ran his detection seal over the flying thunder god seal. The wall rippled like water and the seal melted in; half a second later the wall lit up a light blue and kanji for each component rippled to the surface. Naruto swiped around each complicated kanji after complicated kanji and separated each fuinjutsu chain. He organized them so that they would be end to end but not touching each other, making sure that exactly how the seal was layered was how they were originally organized. He then tapped the first seal on the far right and under the seal its translation was written down clearly. He then began the tedious job of crossing random seals together to see if they were able to function as well as adding his own seals to the mix. If he kept up the work for long enough he would finally make a breakthrough in about a week. The fact he was using his advanced detection seal, the one he had put on the wall, was testament to how hard it was to crack.

He worked so hard and for so long he wasn't even aware that he had fallen asleep nine hours later. He woke up with a start and groaned tiredly as he looked at the alarm seal blinking on his wheelchair. The seal doubled up to function as a real alarm if he was ever asleep and he had something important to do that day.

Naruto got to his feet and stretched his body, making sure to focus more on his 'dead' leg. He smacked his lips and walked to the bathroom so he could wash his face, he took off his shirt to do so and after that he stood idly in the bathroom, heavy bags under his eyes, scratching his belly. Then his eyes widened in realization of why his alarm had woken him up, "the picnic,"

He scrambled out of the bathroom and looked at the time; he was thirty whole minutes late. He rubbed out some sleep from his eyes and threw on a simple black with blue stripes shirt, changing his baggy black pants for another pair of baggy black pants but this one had white stripes on the side. He pulled on his baggy blue hoodie and jogged out of his apartment.

The boy kept a vigil eye out for anyone that wanted to sneak attack him as he trotted to training ground thirteen. As he got there his elbow was summarily grabbed by Hinata. The girl had been nervously squeezing the ends of her short skirt, looking around for any sign of her teacher and just as she activated her byakugan she saw him and launched off of the large picnic blanket that the other genin and Yakumo were sitting on. The teens looked at the girl curiously as she dragged the taller teen to where they were sitting; she beamed at them and chirped, "Guys, this is Naruto-kun,"

"Nice to meet you all," he bowed politely and pulled back the hood of his hoodie, making Ino and Sakura swoon,

"You didn't tell us he was handsome, Hina-chan!"

Naruto stood a bit taller than the average twelve year old with dull blonde hair and wonderfully bright blue eyes. His whiskered cheeks stretched as his mouth smiled at them; although he wasn't showing any skin all instinctively knew he was thinly muscled.

The girl blushed lightly and ushered for her teacher to take a seat on the blanket. Naruto smiled lightly at each genin, even to Neji and Kiba. The dog boy spoke up, "you didn't tell us _he_ was going to be here," he expertly hid his discomfort,

"Kiba…" Shino started but stopped when Naruto waved his hand nonchalantly,

"Its fine," he was seated next to Chouji and Tenten, "how's your back Kiba?"

"Good, no thanks to you," was the sharp retort,

Shikamaru looked at the boy curiously as he took a sip of his green tea, "do I know you from somewhere…?"

"I'm afraid not," Hinata helped serve Naruto some spicy ramen and the boy gratefully slurped it down, making sure not to out rightly pour it into his mouth,

"Hina-chan says he was in the crowd at the chunin exams," Ino piped up as she took a huge bite out of a chicken leg,

"Oh yeah, I saw him in the Kage's ward area, my dad says he was Sandaime-sama's special ward," Chouji said with his mouth filled with dumplings,

Neji had chosen to be fairly civil in the team gathering, maybe a glare at Hinata here and there, but civil enough, "he tied me up with that silver rope,"

All the genin 'oh'd' at the memory.

The training ground they were in wasn't exactly classified as a training ground; there was a calmly flowing river passing through and there were lush trees and grass all around, there was only a fairly large enough space for a spar. The picnic blanket was filled with an assortment of different kinds of food: udon, soba, curry, rice, ramen, sashimi and pretty much anything the girls could think up. The genin were all seated around and were digging in around the food spread out in the centre of the blanket.

"How were you able to do that?" Tenten asked with a curiously raised eyebrow,

"Seals," he simply answered,

"You're into fuinjutsu?"

"Hai, are you?"

"Hai, what level are you? I'm on level four so far," she proudly puffed her chest,

"Oh you won't be interested in that. Please pass the sushi," Sakura passed him a plate of sushi with sweating palms, nervous that someone that looked so attractive wasn't behaving so aloof with her, or perving on her; she glared at Kiba before she returned her attention to the new guest,

"No, no we'd like to know," Shikamaru said as he leaned back on his elbows to look at the clouds,

"I'm a level nine seal master, going to ten,"

Their reactions were incredibly humorous and he savoured each of them; Tenten and Chouji choked on their chicken, Shino, Neji and Sakura spat out their drinks away from the food, Shikamaru choked on the air he was breathing, Kiba flipped backwards and landed on his stomach and Sai just smiled creepily. Sasuke though looked at him with firm eyes before he snorted and sipped some soda.

"A level nine?!" Tenten exclaimed and shook his shoulders frantically, "that's half a level lower than Yondaime-sama!"

Naruto chuckled and pried her fingers off his shoulders, "yes, so?"

"Oh my gosh…I feel faint…"

"It's not that big of a deal…"

"What do you mean? It took years before Yondaime-sama could get there. How did you get that good?" Shikamaru asked as he sat up sharply, looking at Naruto suspiciously,

"I've been studying fuinjutsu since I was about four; I'm twelve and a half now,"

"I don't believe you," Sasuke grunted and crossed his arms,

"I didn't ask anyone to believe me," Naruto shrugged,

"A demonstration then," Tenten asked frantically, grasping Naruto's blue hoodie with both of her hands, you could basically see the foam pouring out of her mouth and the maniacal glint in her eyes,

Again, Naruto pried her fingers off slowly and shrugged again, he took off his hoodie to reveal his long sleeve black with blue stripes shirt and rolled up his sleeve a little to his elbow to show the seal tattoos that spider webbed up the his forearms and disappeared so they couldn't see that his whole torso was also tattooed with seals; and from the way Tenten was hyperventilating she didn't need any more convincing but Naruto still went ahead with it. With him still sitting down Naruto pulled out his silver snake rope seemingly from thin air with one hand and his snake chain with the other, he flicked his wrist to Sasuke and tapped his forehead, the kanji for 'sleep' spiralled into view and the boy began to slump backwards but Naruto caught him with his snake rope and pulled him back up, then he whipped his chain at him again and the boy sputtered awake, then Naruto released his hand from his snake rope and all watched in awe as the rope slithered around the food, and grabbed another serving of ramen, returning to Naruto and giving it to him. He mentally commanded the rope to slither to his hand and sealed them up without any chakra burst.

"Taadaa," he gave them dramatic jazz hands to show them that there was nothing up his sleeves and began to chow down on the ramen,

"Oh. My. Gosh." Was the first thing Ino muttered after the small display; it happened so fast they seriously doubted it happened but with how wide mouthed Neji was it _did_ happen.

"That's not all, Naruto-kun once sealed up a whole lake and poured it on Hinata," Yakumo said, relishing in the small glare the Hyuuga heiress sent her,

"Years of study, that's all,"

The lone Uchiha blinked in confusion and yawned, "What…what happened?"

Kiba then howled out in laughter, "he just put you to sleep boy!" he winced though when Sakura punched his cheek, "it's true!"

Shikamaru blinked, "so you're telling the truth then,"

"I didn't have any reason to lie,"

"Then why aren't you a ninja?" Neji asked and leaned forward to hear what the boy had to say,

"A long time ago I wanted to be a ninja, but Sandaime-sama said I couldn't be one, so I don't want to be a Konoha ninja anymore," only Shikamaru and Sai caught what he meant,

"Why didn't he let you?" Sakura asked with her green eyes crinkled in worry,

"It's because you aren't able to walk well, am I correct Naruto-san," Sai interrupted, Naruto smiled and nodded, "you weren't supposed to be able to walk in the first place and when you found a way to walk he put you down, didn't he?" Naruto nodded again but with a curiously raised eyebrow,

"How do you know?" Neji asked,

"It isn't exactly a secret he's a seal master in the first place,"

"Then how come _we_ didn't know about him?"

"You weren't even looking in the first place,"

Silence reigned in the picnic site but all the genin now looked at Naruto with a bit more respect. Chouji was the first to speak up after half an hour of silence, "you can use only seals to fight?" Naruto nodded, "you don't know any taijutsu styles?"

"I'm learning one; the Armadillo fighting style,"

"Tough one," Sai muttered but grinned widely at Naruto, Naruto smiled back hesitantly,

Ino leaned to Hinata and whispered, "Hot and smart, you've really bagged yourself one Hina-chan," Naruto rolled his eyes and drank some water to wash down all the ramen he had eaten,

"We're not dating, Ino-chan," she whispered back,

Sasuke though was staring at Naruto, not wavering even under the polite smile Naruto sent.

The blonde boy tapped his knees impatiently, "is there a problem, Sasuke-san?"

"By any chance do you know how to get _**this**_ off me?" he pulled down his collar to show Naruto his cursed seal mark, the containment seal covered it well enough but Sasuke still had to put conscious effort to keep it in place,

The seal master scratched his chin and threw a piece of paper with a single dot on top he had removed from his sleeve to the Uchiha, "put that over the seal," the boy did as instructed and the dot expanded until it was a perfect copy of the cursed seal on Sasuke's neck. Sasuke looked at the piece of paper curiously but passed it back to Naruto when he asked for it. Tenten looked over his shoulder too at the seal but went swirly eyed at how complex it was, much higher than what she was used to. "I'm into challenges and this, Sasuke-san, is a challenge. I'll be with you in a week,"

"Where can I meet up with you, I want to ask you something in private,"

"Hinata or Yakumo can show you to where I normally train,"

This was just another project that would keep him busy.

The Uchiha nodded and strained his face into a barely perceived smile, Sakura swooned, "Sasuke-kun!"

All sighed and shook their heads in exasperation; Sakura may have bettered herself by taking more food but she might always have a crush on Sasuke. The black haired boy grunted and looked to the sun, noticing it was about sunset, "it's getting late, I have to head back home," even though no one was waiting for him there,

Tenten's shoulder sagged when she too noticed how late it was getting, "Yeah, Tou-san must be worried," she leaned to Hinata and whispered, "I want to know where he trains too,"

The purple haired girl giggled, "Sure,"

"I as well, I have request," everyone could visibly see Neji swallow his pride as he said this, Naruto raised both eyebrows in surprise but still gave the Hyuuga branch member a thumb up.

"Anyone else?" Hinata playfully asked but was pleasantly surprised when all of the genin nodded, even Sai.

Most would call what Naruto was doing manipulation but he would justify what he was doing by saying that if he created ties with the major clans in Konoha then they wouldn't stand in his way if he left. He wasn't averse to killing and he would not hesitate to kill any of them; maybe he will when it came to Yakumo and Hinata, but in the end he would get the job done. His sky blue eyes looked around as he got to his feet and put on his blue hoodie, "I also need to get back home, I have something's to do." He waved over his shoulder to the gathered genin and left the training ground,

"Naruto-kun!"

He turned around but was barrelled into by Yakumo, the girl hugged him quickly and pulled away, "thank you for coming," Hinata nodded from her the picnic blanket,

Naruto ruffled her hair playfully, "it was no problem," the girl hurriedly shoved his hand off and smoothed down her hair, "training is on Monday, same time as usual," he whispered this and with a parting smile he left the training ground.

Sai wiped the grin off his face and pursed his lips slightly; he rolled on his back and got to his feet, silently waving over his shoulder as he left.

 **Authors note**

 **This chapter wasn't really easy to write since this has to do with multiple characters speaking. Still, how was it? Good enough?**

 **NOTE, Naruto isn't Konoha-oriented; he looks at the effect of things in the long run. If Hinata becomes Hokage and the clan heirs become clan heads he will have powerful allies. He is friendly enough with Tsunade; the problem lies with the three elders…**

 **Y'all remember Gaara? He** _ **should**_ **be making an appearance in the next chapter.**

 **Don't forget to drop a review,**

 **See y'all later,**

 **Foy.**


	14. Chapter 14

**Yo!**

 **Thanks for all of your wicked awesome reviews!**

 **To 'ShnigamiNoKitsune209': Your review made my day dude, thanks for that.**

 **To 'Spark681': I wonder what will happen in the next chapter too bud, I wonder… (*ominous violin beings playing O.o*) XD**

 **To '125b': alright bud let me make you aware of something, the chapter before this was made immediately after the one before that (Chapter 13 was typed down immediately after 12) and I actually forgot to warn YOU about the fact that Zabuza, with two 'Z's' was in there somewhere. Didn't know another 'Z' in Zabuza could get you so riled up XD. Hope your still reading.**

 **To 'VtrCst': He does! Thanks for your review bud, it also made my day.**

 **SHOUT OUT TO 'Ezeakel' for your wonderful ideas and opinions. They are very much appreciated.**

 **A little something before I get into this chapter. Naruto is going to learn two fighting styles but he is going to focus primarily on one, The Armadillo fighting style. When you picture this style try going for kick boxing with mostly the forearms and shins, with the occasional punch and kick here and there. It isn't necessarily fast paced but it gets the job done; you'll see it in action in a few chapters, maybe next chapter. EVEN** _ **I**_ **DON'T KNOW.**

 **There is going to be some indecent themes here, not a lemon or a lime but there is going to be some things that most people under the age of puberty shouldn't know or think about…yet. Just a little warning, I'm going to put up a warning before that part but that part is still essential to the story, so read at your own risk.**

 **I never saw Sasuke as a prat, that's why I don't bash him in my stories. If I do bash him I put up a warning. So I try my best to depict him as decent enough to talk to but still power hungry, know what I mean. Like he will talk to you and do stuff with people but only if it benefits him directly or indirectly, like Naruto. I'm changing something's about his character though. He still looks up to Itachi before the massacre but he didn't necessarily want his father to be happy, you'll see another fact about him in the story.**

 **That seems to be about it.**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 14

 _One month later_

"You took down the one tails holder, Gaara, correct?"

"Yes," Naruto punched a tree and continued punching as Sasuke kept asking his questions,

"You're the person that Hokage-sama says helped find her, correct?"

"In a way yes, Jiraiya-sama helped too," a forearm went forward and dented the tree, leaving a thick horizontal grove on the tree after impact, he reached back and kept on drilling mid chunin speed blows to the tree. He was garbed in his training gear; plain white shirt, light blue shorts and blood red forearm and shin protectors. This was the first time Sasuke had sought him out just to speak with him, which wasn't so bad seeing as Naruto was seemingly always busy doing something.

"You went against my brother and Hoshigaki Kisame and held your own until Jiraiya-sama and Tsunade-sama arrived, correct?"

"Eh…Yes, that's more or less true," Sasuke looked at him questionably, "I did hold them back but when you say that I think of taijutsu and I only used ninjutsu and fuinjutsu,"

"That's still…impressive," the Uchiha struggled to bring out the last word, Naruto nodded his thanks and grabbed the trunk of the tree he was laying waste to and began to smash his shin protectors on the sides, creating more and more groves, though these ones weren't forming straight away, "You beat Orochimaru of the Sannin, correct?"

"Not entirely correct," Naruto grunted. The fascinating thing about the Armadillo fighting style was that it was incredibly similar to Iwagakure kick boxing; it made use of blocking and countering, grappling and dealing out blows to either the head of the mid-section. The attacks weren't to be left out; though it had to do with striking with the protectors and the fists, the feet had to be solid on the ground, "I only distracted Orochimaru for long enough until the other two Sannin arrived,"

"But you did some damage," Sasuke pointed out, something Sasuke wasn't even able to do,

"Yeah, you can say that,"

The little things all started to fall into place about the quiet seal master; from the first time he saw the boy dejectedly walk out of the Hokage's tower a year eight months ago, dismissing him just as soon, then the invasion where he caught sight of Naruto with the corner of his eyes just before he was knocked out, like at the picnic, then when he had seen Itachi trying to get to Naruto and failing, then lastly was the time he had seen the summons fight far away from Tanzuki and Naruto shooting down his blue chakra beam attack. That single attack Naruto had used could be seen all the way to where Sasuke hid, and the memory had been plastered in his mind ever since.

He idly scratched his neck where his altered curse seal was. Naruto had told him that he wasn't able to remove the curse seal without a drop of Orochimaru's blood, so he had discussed with Sasuke about an idea he had. That he would correct the nature chakra beacon seal, making it so that the nature chakra that had already accumulated there would siphon out. The corrected seal had layers of seal stacked on top of each other; at the far bottom was the corrected nature chakra seal, the next was the nature siphoning seal, then the level ten super suppressor seal he had learnt from his father Hirashin seal, he then tightened hold over the master/slave seal and reversed the loyalty seal to a pleasure seal that was a lot weaker than the one he had given Zabuza, the last was a full body restraint and chakra draining seal in case Sasuke ever lost control of all the power flowing into him, preventing him from turning into rock.

Naruto, of course, had to take express permission from the Hokage, Tsunade Senju, and Sasuke's team sensei, Kakashi Hatake, while he was supervised by Jiraiya before he could go ahead with altering the cursed seal. He was sure he didn't need the white haired Sannin looking over his shoulder at the seals he was placing on his fellow twelve year old but he wasn't quite disturbed by it, maybe the man was finally taking his seal work above his smut work. Maybe. Kakashi though was glad for his help; it was always hard training Sasuke with the way his anger would spark uncontrollably especially when he was training with his team, at least now after two whole weeks of observing the lone Konoha Uchiha ninja there weren't any problems coming up. The thing that Naruto was hesitant to do was train Sasuke on how to handle the nature chakra in the seal; Kakashi only had the experience to train Sasuke with his sharingan but Naruto had let it slip that the seal on Yakumo was where he got most of the design from, and that he was training Yakumo on how to utilize the beast chakra in her, the older seal master had proposed that he should help Sasuke with his own training.

The blonde boy had declined the offer but had said that Kakashi and Sasuke could as well be present when he was training Yakumo; he wouldn't look over the Uchiha or his development personally but he wouldn't hinder him in the least. The copy ninja could work with that. Naruto was three months ahead of Sasuke in training beast/nature chakra he just gave the older sharingan wielder his notes on training Yakumo, a copy of course.

At the moment Sasuke had appeared when Naruto was going through his own personal training. It was almost unbearably annoying how Sasuke kept following him but he couldn't bring himself to care. Though, it seemed that Sasuke was trying to understand something he hadn't attempted to grasp before, "why didn't the Sandaime let you become a ninja again?"

"I couldn't walk well,"

"You obviously can,"

"He didn't see it that way," this time Naruto began to pummel his fist directly to the bark, turning his knuckles red but he ignored the pain and powered through, "where is this coming from Sasuke-san,"

The black haired boy began counting on his fingers, "You became a level nine and a half seal master in eight years, you can beat any jounin with just your seals, you helped beat up Orochimaru, you changed my cursed seal, you're training Hinata Hyuuga and Yakumo Kurama, do I have to continue?" Naruto shrugged, "train me,"

"No,"

"Why?"

"I have enough students for now,"

"One more won't make a difference,"

"Then I have to run you up on where Hinata and Yakumo are," he remembered a spar between the Hyuuga heiress and the Uchiha; it had ended with Hinata victorious because she had used all of her pent up raw strength instead of her usual custom gentle fist style; her style made use of more high kicks and outright punches rather than too palm strikes. She didn't make use of any jutsu, just her byakugan and her strength to match up and overcome Sasuke. It was a humbling feeling for the boy to see the formerly quivering Hyuuga stand so confidently over his beat up body. "That will take a full month of intense training that I would prefer training myself in taijutsu, plus I don't think Kakashi would appreciate it if I trained you as well,"

"He won't care," Sasuke refrained from growling, though he did clench his fists at his sides,

Naruto stopped and leaned on the tree with his shoulder, crossing his arms over his chest, "I could just give training scrolls to Kakashi-san,"

"He emphasizes team training, if you give scrolls for me you have to give to the rest of the team too, then the remaining genin teams will think that's partiality and demand training scrolls as well,"

"That's true," Naruto slid down the tree trunk and patted his side for Sasuke to sit down beside him, the boy did so hesitantly, "I'm asking this as a concerned acquaintance Sasuke-san; what is your goal in life? You have years of being a successful ninja ahead of you and I may always be confined to this village," pure lie, "why are you in such a rush?"

Sasuke pulled his legs to his chest and stared out over the trees ahead of him, at the orange clouds that blocked the mid-afternoon cloud. In truth he would have liked a more peaceful life; maybe turn chunin and when he was older become a father. He would have been content with that life, even though his father wouldn't have liked him to remain a chunin, but his brother turned him into what he was; a power hungry loner.

"My goal is to avenge my clan and to resurrect the great Uchiha clan,"

Naruto looked at him from the corner of his eyes for a minute before he puffed out some air from his mouth, "what do you know about the Uzumaki clan, Sasuke-san?" the Uchiha shrugged and shook his head, "they were a great clan revered for their mighty chakra capacity, their fuinjutsu knowledge and their infinite abilities with the sword. The Uzumaki were what you called the perfect clan because they had the chakra to do any kind of ninjutsu and not feel the pull all that much. I have twice as much chakra than Orochimaru at the moment and growing, expanding," Sasuke's eyes widened, not even realizing that Naruto's chakra was also getting denser by the month with all the Kyuubi chakra flowing through it, "my clan was destroyed by the coalition of Kumogakure and Iwagakure villages, all because my clan were too powerful and they feared invasion. My clan, though we were famed for our legendary rage, never intended to invade any village. Matter of fact, we helped build Konoha," if Sasuke's eyes could widen any more they would pop out of their sockets; he was learning more and more about Konoha every day, "but those two villages and their nations were power hungry. Now let me ask you a question, what would have been my life if Uzushiogakure, my clans Hidden village, wasn't destroyed?"

"You would have been a ninja, you would have been more acknowledged,"

"I would have been happy," Naruto smiled thinly, "I would blame Iwa and Kumo for how miserable my life has been, I would set my sights on destroying them,"

"Yes, you would,"

"But I'm not,"

"You're not? Then why would you need to learn how to fight? Why reach this level in fuinjutsu?"

"I do not plan or wish for their destruction because, as stupid as it sounds, they were doing what they thought was right. They feared what they did not know and what man fears they either subject under them or they destroy. What they did was for the good of their own personal interests,"

"But…but they destroyed a village, a legendary clan! How are you not mad?"

Naruto was silent for a minute, "royal delegation from both Iwa and Kumo were in Uzishio for a treaty signing but they died in their rooms before anything could happen. I dug through all the records Konoha had on them and I found out that there was a small hole in the emigration log Konoha has,"

"You think Konoha killed them and framed the Uzumaki?"

"I think someone _in_ Konoha wanted the Uzumaki out of the way. You can see why my rage isn't directed at the two villages' right?"

Sasuke sighed and nodded, "they were reacting to a threat they thought was your clan,"

"Yes, they were protecting their interests,"

Naruto leaned back and closed his eyes, allowing the Uchiha beside him to think through all he had said. Then he opened his eyes and removed his right forearm protector, looking down at the seals that speckled it with his usual critical eyes, he tapped here and there and seals glowed under his touch, each on more complex than the last. The black haired boy was looking away with his eyebrows furrowed, _'what interest was Itachi protecting by killing his own clan? His own blood? He said he wanted to train himself but…I've known him for years…'_ he looked to the blonde Uzumaki beside him and just realized that the boy was just as alone as he was; he was probably the last of his clan, "Naruto?" the boy responded with a hum, "my… _ **brother**_ told me he killed everyone in my clan because he was testing himself,"

"What do you think?"

"I…I honestly don't know what to think. You just took three years of my anger and made me question it," the boy chuckled dryly and Naruto snorted, "He told me to use my hate to get stronger, do you think that's right?"

"It depends on how you use that hate," Sasuke looked at the boy with his coal black eyes and Naruto decided to continue, "hate, for me, is a good training partner. I can use my pent up rage and destroy a training ground, the draw backs are that you wouldn't _see_ anyone else," the Uchiha nodded his understanding, realizing that he had never seen anyone else but Itachi and himself, "but at the same time I also get stronger because I am dedicated to being the best at what I do, I cannot use hate to do that because if I do not see anyone I cannot measure myself up to them, only the object of my hate,"

Sasuke's shoulders sagged, the other boy was speaking the truth; there should have been ninja more powerful than even Itachi, probably closer than he thought. Kakashi had the sharingan and he was also the last of his clan, after much digging. The Hatake clan _were_ infamous for their white chakra…

"I started small by trying to reach past the Sandaime in fuinjutsu. He was a level six, then after that I tried to surpass Jiraiya-sama and he was a level eight and a half, now I'm trying to reach past Yondaime-sama and he was at the peak, a level ten. Do you see what I'm trying to say?"

"Hai, I need to start small, at my own level,"

"And that I'm not telling you to drop your goal or throw away your hate, I'm advising you to re-evaluate it; there is a lot more to life if you looked past your own nose,"

Sasuke rolled his eyes, "thank you, Naruto," he will definitely have to re-think his clans murder,

Naruto slipped two bottles of water seemingly from thin air but in reality it was out of one of the seal tattoos in his left arm that was in full view from the short sleeves he wore. He gave a bottle to the boy beside him and both drank it down, Naruto being the only one to finish his own bottle of water.

After successfully containing Sasuke's cursed seal Tsunade had politely asked if he could do the same for Anko Mitarashi, a jounin. He had accepted but asked for a week of break since it took the boy half a day to work on Sasuke's seal, plus he had to put Sasuke to sleep, seeing as the process was mind numbingly painful for him. Anko was more than grateful for and had sworn to him that he could ask her for anything, any time and she would do it for him, adding that she would find a way to get her former sensei's blood to remove the slave/master seal that was still there. In turn he had also requested from the Hokage a favour, something that he swore wouldn't threaten the security of Konoha, she had hesitantly obliged.

Naruto didn't appreciate all the attention he was getting, especially after he had fixed Anko's cursed seal; there were more jounin and chunin that knew his name and of his expertise in fuinjutsu, and this made it harder for him to move around. The woman took it upon herself to promote him even though he had expressly told her not to turn him into a public figure.

The boy groaned and got to his feet, stretching his body and sealing up his forearm and shin protectors into a tattoo seal on his left elbow, Sasuke got up as well, "got somewhere to go?"

"Hai, I have something to sort out," Naruto scratched his neck and threw on his blue hoodie, "I'll give you some pointers in your training here and there but I cannot promise I'll take you up fully, agreed?"

Sasuke smiled slightly, "I'll take what I can get,"

"First, work on your guard, its good but I notice a lot of holes there that you aren't aware of, like the fact I can get to your mid-section," the Armadillo taijutsu demanded he know all the possible attacks anyone would make on him so he could form ways to counter or block them, "you need to learn how to fight with both feet on the ground first before you take it up a notch and go for high kicks, that is usually where people lose control of a fight," Sasuke nodded and stored that tid bit of information, "and don't depend on your sharingan, it can seriously hinder you if the person you're up against knows how to negate it," the other boy nodded again, "I'll see if I can swing by your teams training ground later,"

"Thank you, Naruto," those words came out hesitantly but Sasuke meant them, he bowed his head slightly,

"Call me sensei when I'm teaching you, Sasuke-san,"

"Sensei,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Warning: a little indecent**

A tall blue haired man donning a black hat pushed open the doors to Konoha's White tooth and was immediately blasted with the sounds of slow, heavy, seductive music as well as the thick scent of sex in the air. He grinned as he looked around, watching all of the call girls slid up and down their poles as well as walk around, sashaying their hips in tune with the music. Most of the prostitutes, that were walking around were only clad in their under wear or really short shorts that barely hid anything. He saw some rubbing up to men sitting on chairs and giving lap dances, enticing them with their alluring eyes and their sweet mouths. The men and women that were sitting around stripper pole platforms were hooting at the pole dancers' dexterity and beauty, not ashamed to wave their money above their heads to get their attention.

The man took a deep breathe, taking in the blatant stench of flesh against flesh, the seductive music and the quiet murmurs going around under the music that dominated the sound waves. His coal black eyes looked around for a free table and he walked briskly there, his neat black suit pants and black shirt not ruffling as he wafted past the call girls that were attending to the eagerly paying customers. He slid into a seat and his eyes sparkled at the sight around him. Not five minutes later a woman in her late teens slipped onto his lap, with both of her legs over his and put her arms around his neck, she smirked shyly and gently rubbed her rear over his crotch, frowning when he didn't develop a full hard on but his eyes did show his 'delight'. She was clad in a bright yellow lacy thin pantie that didn't hide anything from view and black stockings that went up past her thighs, she also had a lacy thin white bra that covered her womanly breasts and a cute little black hat perched on her head. Her mousy brown hair was styled in a short hime cut and her brown eyes glinted with underlying mischief, covered up with what most would call childhood innocence.

The man grinned and wrapped his arms around her as she gyrated her hips over his still semi-flaccid member, she licked her small ruby red lips, something she hadn't yet used that night and pulled the man closer so they were forehead to forehead, he took the chance to run his hands over her shapely body, appreciating ever curve and the way her rear bounced after he slapped it lightly, he palmed both cheeks in his hands and smirked as she muffled her moan in his shoulder, she pulled her head back and grinned at him, "what brings you to these parts stranger?" her super pale white skin glowed slightly in the dim light,

"I came for a good time," she made to kiss the corner of his lips but the man pulled his head back, "eager aren't you?"

"I aim to please,"

Both stared at each other and she slowly pulled her left arm back, briefly flashing the four horizontal waves that were tattooed on her biceps, she put a strand of her brown hair behind her ear and blushed as his arms tightened around her, feeling him draw circles on her lower back, "the wife is giving me some trouble at home, honey; I'm just here to talk," she idly counted the circles,

' _One, two, three, four…'_ she pouted her lips cutely and kissed his neck slowly, "you sure you don't want us to take this to my room?"

"Very sure," he simply replied. The woman sat back on his lap gently and looked around casually, "what do you have for me, Mole?"

Mole was a high ranking ROOT operative, only a level under Danzo himself, so this gave her special privileges other operatives didn't enjoy, like the fact that she could have accommodation's outside the ROOT headquarters as well as have an outside hobby. The nineteen year old woman had chosen to be a call girl, but she didn't have full blown sex with her customers some of her. The woman was famed among her prostitute peers for giving the best hand jobs, blow jobs and boob jobs, not always allowing anyone to enter her and for some strange reason the men and women she attended to never raised any complaints for her occasional lack of full service. She was also known to be able to work the stripper pole like a master, contorting and moving on it like she owned the place. Danzo didn't particularly like her hobby but she was ranked high enough in the ROOT echelon to not be blocked from pursuing it.

The brothel slash bar was too dimly lit for any person to keep track of anyone, add in the shirtless women swishing around and the smoke that hung in the air; this was the perfect cover for Mole to give regular reports to Naruto through Daku. The blonde seal master could have come by himself to retrieve the information but quite frankly he was never comfortable with the scent of hot sex in the air, coupled with his hyper sense of smell and _hearing_. Daku though was as smooth as a brick when it came to females so he was fairly sure he could hold back his urges, which surprising enough he had in spades since he was part of Naruto. She had willingly put herself into this line of work to further prove her loyalty to Naruto, making it known to him that she would do anything to show that she was firmly on his side. She may have taken the loyalty seal and Naruto trusted her enough to seal off her pain nerve endings but she would always think that it was never enough, that she could go that extra mile to ensure him she wasn't going to defect. Naruto knew of her obsession with him, he didn't particularly like the fact that a woman five years older than him was so devoted to him and his cause but he was glad for the addition to his shinobi.

Mole, as a prostitute, called herself Em or just 'M'. She was aware that in order to keep her cover up she wasn't ever supposed to step out of the red light district without a customer escorting her, so she compensated by telling Daku all she knew about ROOT, both written down and verbally, whenever the dark shadow appeared in disguise. She was to look out for a man with traces of blue in his hair and who couldn't be fully aroused, she would then flash her Wave black ops tattoo (the four wave lines on her bicep) and he would say he was just here to talk before or after she showed him her tattoo. This regular correspondence happened once a week, specifically on a Friday night when the strip club was mostly filled with clientele so they would mostly be passed off as a man being attended to by a hooker, nothing unusual.

Mole lightly swished her hair and ran her right hand through, bringing out a finger sized scroll and trailing it seductively down Daku's face, and then slipping it into his pocket, "Danzo plans on infiltrating Wave, posing as a cloth merchant from Hidden Darkness. He plans on using Wave as a sort of second ROOT base," she whispered this as her forehead again touched his, she stifled her moan when his hands unconsciously squeezed her behind, idly rubbing her crotch against his to get rid of the aching need there, maybe she could invite that crazy jounin, Anko, to come and help take care of her. That lady knew exactly what she was doing. She always liked it rough, to an extent, but she never found anyone that could sate her thirst, so she would likely do it herself until the early hours of the morning before she had to return to ROOT headquarters. "He is sending Fuu Yamanaka, Torune Aburame and me with him to act as his guards. He doesn't know we are allied to Darkness," Danzo had chosen a hidden village that was only slightly known but only for their silence and reclusiveness.

Daku hummed and furrowed his eyebrows, "how far are you with your training?" Naruto had sent her his Chakra high seal through Daku for her to train secretly with, only when she was on a solo mission and when she was running on fumes,

"I'm proficient enough," she answered shortly,

"When is this mission?"

"In three days, Danzo wishes to fully prepare himself to take over Wave,"

"Before that, will you be ready if Naruto-sama wishes to destroy ROOT?"

"Hai, I will always be ready," her eyes showed her conviction,

"Though I am not sure if Naruto-sama would do that, he would probably bring ROOT to light. I am not sure. Still, stay vigilant,"

"Hai, Daku-sama," the Henge'd seal creation nodded and pulled her in for a hard kiss, making sure to nip her bottom lip slightly and turn the young woman into a pile of goo on his lap; maybe it was the fact that Daku came directly from Naruto, maybe that Daku had read up on ways to pleasure a woman simply by kissing her, but Mole was sure that she had never had this reaction with other men before. Never in her life. That fact repulsed her, made her see herself as some sort of monster that like children younger than him, but it was not so; it was only Naruto.

"If all goes well I assure you of a promotion to assistant DARK captain," she bit her bottom lip to contain her glee, but she nodded fervently. After the ceremonial make out session they both had they parted ways, Mole to go and search for Anko and Daku to go and report to Naruto.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Gaara crossed his arms and lightly glared at the council elders in front of him, protectively standing in front of his sister and older brother, Temari and Kankuro. The red haired one tails holder remained unmoving as the elders stared back at him, "I do not see how I am ready,"

"You have shown remarkable growth after the…after the failed invasion. Konoha has decided not to retaliate but we are still kept at arm's length, we are glad about that." the oldest puppet master, Chiyo, said from her seat beside the vacant Kazekage's desk. The sand siblings' sensei, Baki, once occupied the seat as the interim Kazekage but it was now empty; the elders had asked Gaara to fill the seat officially. The only councillors that were present were Chiyo and three other members he couldn't be bothered to remember.

"I am still not sure if I am ready,"

"Do you love Sunagakure, Gaara?"

"With all my heart," he immediately responded,

"Would you die fighting for Sunagakure?" another councillor asked,

"Hai,"

"Would you do anything for Suna to prosper?"

"Hai, anything within my power,"

Chiyo spoke up, "the people of Suna have noticed your dramatic change, Gaara. Some are still hesitant but most now see you are stable," she stood up slowly, creaking to her feet and walked to the boy; she put a hand on his shoulder and smiled widely, "they are willing to follow you, Gaara,"

Gaara's guarded stance slumped slightly, his arms remained crossed but the glare had come off his face. His eyes trailed to the other present councillors and saw them nod their heads in agreement; the failed invasion might have been months ago and Suna was rehabilitating well enough, but the village still needed a strong leader. His eyes hardened and he nodded curtly. The old puppet master led the boy around the desk and he sat down, the seals on the chair glowed a light green-brown to show their acceptance, knowing that the person that had just sat down was in the Kazekage clan. He sighed and looked at his siblings, Temari and Kankuro, and he slowly smiled at them. His older sister wiped a stray tear from her eyes, and Kankuro sent him thumbs up and winked discreetly.

The youngest Kage looked at the paper on his desk and frowned; the council members noticed this and winced slightly. Chiyo returned to her seat and chuckled nervously, "Oh, I might have…forgotten about that…"

"I disagree; I will not allow it,"

"It is for the good of Suna. It will make Suna strong, Gaara-sama," a nameless councillor grunted,

"You said it yourself; you will do anything for Suna and this is a test to prove that,"

The sand user clenched his fists on the desk but his sand remained calm, he breathed in deep and looked at his brother apologetically, then his sister, "I'm sorry Temari; a marriage contract has been proposed to Naruto Uzumaki today." His heart shattered on her open mouth stare, "but…but look on the bright side, he doesn't come off as the marrying type, right?"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto sneezed and whipped out a handkerchief from his black pants pocket to wipe his nose, "excuse me,"

"Maybe it's one of your admirers talking about you," Tsunade said with a snarky glint in her eyes, she leaned on the desk with her arms and winked at the younger blonde that was sitting near the window. The boy rolled his eyes and sat back comfortably on his chair; his wheel chair was by the door to the office.

"I hope it isn't Anko-san," he murmured,

The woman chuckled and went back to the paper work stacked on her desk, "the fact still remains that you're a major hit with the genin teams," her eyes roved over a document and she pursed her lips, speaking a minute later, "do you think hosting a festival is a good idea?"

"You mean besides the annual Kyuubi festival, the Rice festival, and all those other festivals?" Naruto asked with a raised eyebrow,

"Oh…I see what you're saying," she set the document aside on a pile she had dubbed the 'later stack'.

The reason Naruto had come to the Hokage's office in the first place was to cash in on his favour, but he had been side tracked by the woman when she began her long winded rant on why she even agreed to be Hokage in the first place, the conversation then went to how she would have liked gambling, and losing, than being stuck in the office all day. After that the talk between the two spiralled out of control until she had tried teasing, and failing, the boy on how many female _**and**_ male stalkers he now had. The boy was a pro when it came to keeping his face blank but the woman was very persistent.

It wasn't unusual for the woman to ask for his opinions in some village matters, things that weren't necessarily secret in the first place and some other things that she genuinely wanted him to help her with; the boy had shown strange wisdom not among his peers when it came to the affairs of citizens.

She bit the end of her pen between her teeth and looked up at Naruto as he cleared his throat, "I came in the first place to talk about something important, or important things, either one is fine," it was nine in the night and the only ones in the Hokage tower were the Hokage, the ANBU guards, Shizune and the cleaners. Tsunade knew as a fact that Naruto found it very hard to sleep longer than two hours and that the Kyuubi would nullify any drug she gave him, so she didn't hesitate to host the boy in her office and talk about things. The effects of talking to a cool and collected person was that she could think better, that she could use him to bounce ideas off of and that he never caved under her rants; it was doing a lot of good to her.

The woman looked at him curiously; "yes?" she instinctively knew that what he was going to say was not to be joked with,

"Alone, if you don't mind,"

She waved her hand and the shadows in the corners of the office lightened slightly, Naruto frowned and scratched his neck, using the motion to show her something. The woman caught on and tucked her hair behind her ear, doing so slowly. The boy snorted and held a single ram hand seal, drawing a line with his big toe on the ground, _"Ninja art: fuinjutsu: Light seal trap in the living hell,"_ he muttered the words quickly and the ground in the office shone blue, throwing away any shadow away and Tsunade remained calm as her body was caught in the wide range seal trap. A hazy white lightning bolt shot out to her but bent around her, going around her four times before it entered the ground and electrocuted someone that was hiding behind the curtain. The ground still shone blue as Naruto made a circular motion with his free hand, like a fishing reel, and all the blue circled around the spot the lightning had gone.

Then the curtains parted and a ROOT operative was dragged out by the blue chakra, his body completely unresponsive before and after he had been electrocuted. Naruto willed the blue chakra to sit him in place as he commanded a silver snake rope to tie up the ninja. The ROOT ANBU had been using a triple layered genjutsu and a B rank hiding ninjutsu to prevent anyone from tracking him. Tsunade wasn't a sensor but Naruto had sensory seals all over his body, these seals alerted him of a little chakra presence in the room and he had used his custom made trap Fuin-ninjutsu to capture him.

The snake rope held the ninja tightly and Naruto sat back on his chair, releasing the _ram_ hand seal so that all of the blue chakra can slip back into his body through his feet. The Senju glared at the ninja from across her desk, being able to do so since the ninja was in the middle of the room, "who are you?" she commanded,

"Don't bother, Tsunade-sama, he has 'death by fire seal' on his tongue," the ninja wasn't able to activate it because his body had been put into paralysis, and the snake rope was draining his chakra forcefully,

"Have you seen him before?"

"Yes, in fact there are more of his type of ninja in Konoha,"

The woman stood up abruptly, "where?" she simply asked,

Naruto motioned for her to calm down; she did so slowly and sat down, "I know all of their hide outs. This man's shinobi faction is one of the reasons I'm here in the first place," it was ridiculous to think that he had come to the woman's office four hours ago and had been so side tracked he almost forgot the reason he was there in the first place,

"What's the other reason?" Naruto paused and began to re-think telling her, but he shook his head; it had to be done.

"I'm the leader of Wave country,"

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Ninja art: fuinjutsu: Light seal trap of the living hell**_ _ **: This is a B rank trapping jutsu Naruto had created. It only requires him to spread his chakra through the ground quickly to stick everyone in place, or anyone in a room; if he is on solid ground it would spread in a two mile radius if he wanted. Then he would use his affinity seal to command chakra out of the chakra in the ground and attack anyone in the vicinity. He can command the lightning to look over some people, like he did with Tsunade, but attack anyone else. The down side of this ability is that the wider the area he has spread his chakra the 'thinner' it becomes, making it easier for people to break out from. Its counterpart is the**_ _ **Heavy seal trap of the living hell**_ _ **which is the one he used on Akahoshi. That seal is for anyone with denser chakra, he may even be able to trap a jinchuriki.**_

 _ **Super chakra high seal OR chakra high seal**_ _ **: this is a high S rank fuinjutsu that was created by Naruto after he had read about the 'Eight chakra gates'. He had acknowledged that he wouldn't be able to find the time to learn how to activate them with his schedule so he made the seal to simulate and create an incredibly similar version of the eight chakra gates. The seal took a drop of nature chakra and mixed it into the user, making the person's chakra much denser than normal. He and added in seals so that the persons chakra would heal any wounds and that any pain would feel like pleasure. Naruto had applied this seal to all members in his trusted inner circle, except Daku (Frog, Mole, Rat, Zabuza and Haku and himself. The demon brothers declined the seal, saying that they preferred their own natural abilities and Daku didn't need the boost). Naruto had noted that the seal would only function at optimum levels if the user has almost empty chakra levels, if not the persons movements would be very sluggish. He also noted that each individual had specific coloured chakra that personified their most common emotion if they activated the seal; like Haku's colour was a calm baby blue to show that he was mostly calm and happy, Frog's was a dark blue to show that he mostly felt free but at the same time busy and determined, Zabuza was a crimson red to show that he was a raging inferno inside, the others differed. The seal would be able to last an hour or two, depending on how well the user made use of the chakra boost.**_

 **How was this chapter?**

 **What do you think about the marriage contract they want between Temari and Naruto? There is going to be a twist there, so watch out for that.**

 **I know your all going to say that Mole is twisted, but let me make something straight. She isn't too attracted to Naruto; she is super loyal to him. I'll just chalk up her thoughts as an after effect of years in ROOT; she has been trained to not feel anything and she has been doing things without any sort of reward but here Naruto came and freed her, giving her rewards for her loyalty Danzo never measured up to. So, yeah, she would do anything to further his goals, and yeah she might be sexually attracted to him but I assure you that there will be no lemons between them, she may or may not find happiness somewhere else. Who knows?**

 **So, Naruto has revealed that he is the leader of Wave country to Tsunade. What do you think her reaction is going to be, maybe something you won't expect. Who knows unless you keep on reading.**

 **If I made a mistake anywhere let me know. Any ideas, complaints, opinions, criticism, can be through the review or you can PM me, I don't mind.**

 **Don't forget to drop a review please,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	15. Chapter 15

**Yo! Thank you all for the wicked awesome reviews, they all made my day.**

 **To 'marcirio': O.o oh wow…**

 **To 'VtrCst': thank you for your review bud, I try my possible best for things to run consistently. Hopefully it still is so far. Your reviews keep on making my day and your unique insight into this story are one of the reasons I'm able to write more chapters, and as soon as possible. :D**

 **To 'Spark681': I hear them too…I hear them too…BUT not like you expect. Keep reading to find out how.**

 **To 'LegendaryEarthling': Thank you bud.**

 **Now onto the story,**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 15

It happened in the dead of night.

Naruto stared coolly forward, a pair of black glasses over his eyes and garbed in his full combat uniform; black pants that were still free enough but not too baggy, black long sleeved shirt with dark blue stripes going down the arms and a Wave insignia on the shoulders and the back, with a thick jounin flak jacket over his long sleeved shirt. There was a Wave forehead protector around his right upper arm and his kunai and shuriken pouches on his right thigh and hip respectively. His forearm protectors were over his sleeved forearms and so were his shin protectors. He idly rubbed them.

Kakashi leaped down behind him stealthily and crouched beside him, his dog ANBU mask in place. The jounin looked at the younger boy and signed, "Ready?" Naruto looked behind him at the other ANBU operatives that were also in crouched, guarded positions. There was Kakashi's old squad; Cat, Stork, Turtle and Mantis. Tsunade and Daku were also present, the woman was still warily eyeing the turban covered dark shadow that had literally appeared out of thin air but the blonde boy had assured her that he was with him. She walked up to him, barely even making the leaves crunch under her feet and stood beside Naruto. She raised an eyebrow and Naruto presented a full scale map of the ROOT hidden base, he propped it up on a tree, held up with two kunai. He pointed at the entrance, then to the tree, then to himself and Daku. He then pointed at an entrance directly opposite, Kakashi would handle that one with Tsunade, then the five escape routes he crossed them out, telling them that he had already sealed them shut, so no one would escape.

The woman shook her head and Naruto refrained from huffing in exasperation, the guards behind them chuckled under their breathes; she snapped her fingers and a person stepped out of the shadow of a tree, Daku snapped into position but Naruto silently told him to stand down. The moon shone slightly on the new comer and all saw that it was the ANBU commander, Shikaku Nara. She pointed at the man then to the exit, telling Naruto that he would be with the ANBU while she will be with Naruto and Daku. Naruto shrugged and rolled his eyes. He adjusted his forearm protectors and nodded, telling all that he was ready.

He drew a clean line through the tree the map was tagged to and he frowned, drawing a visible blue cross over the map and smirked when the tree creaked inwards, revealing a small set of staircases that led down into the darkness, Kakashi, his former ANBU team and Shikaku flickered to the back entrance to begin their own part of the mission, while Naruto tapped the side of his glasses with his index finger, the screen flickered light blue and he could see clearly in the dark, he also felt the glasses attach to his face so they wouldn't be blown off. The night vision allowed him to slip into the darkness, leading the two others behind him and remain undetected. He looked around and his critical eyes caught the seals on the walls, he breathed a little louder and Tsunade and Daku paused. Naruto put both of his palms onto the ground and a seal matrix spiralled out, expanding and merging with the motion sensor seals that dotted the walls, effectively freezing them in time. The light reduced until it was pitch dark again and he continued his stealthy walk down the ROOT headquarters, making sure to breathe a little loudly again to tell those behind him to keep walking. The tree door closed behind them and they preceded one mission in mind.

Neutralize all ROOT ninja and Danzo.

 _Flashback_

Tsunade allowed the information to sink in, staring straight into Naruto's eyes. She coughed into her hand and raised an eyebrow, "Yes, so?"

The blonde boy furrowed his eyebrows, "You knew?"

"Of course I didn't know, but with everything I've seen you do it won't surprise me that you lead a whole country. Not that I was expecting it," she scoffed, whipping out some sake from a compartment under her desk and swallowing a mouthful straight from the bottle, "my question is," she cleaned the corner of her lips with her wrist, "why didn't you tell me sooner?" she could just feel the beginnings of a headache coming,

"I prefer revealing my secrets if or when I want," he crossed his arms, "anyways, since I lead a whole country it means I am not obligated to stay in this village,"

"I understand that part and I won't mind if you stayed in Wave, you did well with the defence might I add, but the elders will raise some problems; you are konoha's jinchuriki, the Yondaime Hokage's own son. You hold a seat in the Konoha council, a large estate and pockets of land all over fire country that Kushina had bought. How are you going to deal with that?"

"I'm aware that the elders wouldn't like to see me leave and I'm aware of all those other things. My plan is that I sell the land further away from Wave country and make the ones closer to home part of Wave. About the seat in council you can have it, you are part Uzumaki and that alone connects you with the Namikaze clan,"

"And the estate?"

"I said I'll be moving to Wave, I didn't say I wouldn't visit; I have students here, y'know," he shifted in his seat, "and the elders are just there to advice you, they don't hold any sort of power even in the council,"

"I know that. What I'm saying is that they might go behind my back and send a message to the daimyo that an Uzumaki jinchuriki that just so happens to be the Yondaime's son is planning on leaving his village of birth, and his country of origin," she then quickly added, "and no you cannot kill them,"

Naruto's shoulder actually sagged a little at the last part but he responded, "I'm also the daimyo of Wave, my village is fully allied to five other hidden villages and I foresee other alliances' coming soon. I hold equal political sway with the fire daimyo,"

"The fact still remains that fire country is three times larger than Wave, he can command Konoha to wage war with your village and the villages allied with you,"

This was a tight spot, Naruto furrowed his eyebrows and ran through all the ways he could get out of this sort of situation, and sighed tiredly when he thought of one, "an alliance with Konoha then,"

"Full alliance?" Tsunade acknowledged that Wave was slowly rising in the shinobi world; most of the rice Konoha had in the first place was indirectly from Wave, bought from Grass country.

Naruto shook his head, "more like a non-aggression treaty,"

"Military and trade alliance, not fully but I scratch your back, you scratch mine," Naruto rubbed his eyes and thought about this; Fire country got the highest ranking missions so if Wave performed joint missions with Konoha shinobi then there _will_ be profit, there wasn't anything to trade with Konoha he couldn't get from any other hidden village. He wasn't particularly happy with aligning with a village that hadn't treated him kindly from the start. Wave, though had an excellent defence still had a fledgling ninja system; if the daimyo declared war on Wave he was confident that his seals would keep the attacking shinobi out but the problem laid on the fact that his own shinobi would find it difficult to out.

"Think about this first Naruto; forget about the threat of attack. If any other village attacks you, you have full right to request for re-enforcements,"

"But at the same time I'm allied with five strong villages already," then something came to his mind, "the elders; I also came to talk about them," Tsunade motioned for him to continue, "this shinobi," he tightened his snake rope around the ROOT ninja, "works for a secret faction in Konoha you aren't aware of called ROOT, they are led by Shimura Danzo,"

The Senju sighed and closed her eyes, she shook her head, "of course he is. What about the other two fossils, are they aware of this?"

Here Naruto unsealed a thick file from his middle finger and tossed it to her, "see for yourself,"

She flicked open the file and looked through. The first picture there was of Kohoru and Danzo in front of the latter's house at night with a featureless masked shinobi kneeling before them, the picture was clear as day, even though it was night, so she couldn't say it was falsified. The next thing she saw was a hand written report from a person ominously called Mole on all the missions she had done. The first ever mission was when she was nine; she was sent to kidnap some Kaguya members from Kiriagakure so that they can be experimented on to see if they had dormant Dead bone pulse kekkai genkai, the children all died under the experiments, there was a mission where she was to kill some members of the civilian council during the failed Sand/Sound invasion. It kept going, winding on and on and Tsunade's frown deepened when Mole got to all the archived missions every single ROOT shinobi did that only she, Fuu and Torune were privy to. ROOT stretched so far back they were part of the reason Uzishio was destroyed in the first place and why the Uzumaki weren't as strong as they were before; a ROOT ninja by the name Rat had poisoned their water supply with slow acting chakra eating virus, weakening them exponentially. It was tragic.

Then there were more pictures of the elders taken mostly in dark stretches of roads with a small squad of ROOT ninja kneeling before them or what she could only guess was in a section of ROOT training ground, but those kind of pictures were of low quality and were far away, so the person had to zoom in until the picture looked a bit pixelated. Tsunade scanned the pictures and tried to remember what Sarutobi Hiruzen, her sensei, had taught her team on whether or not a document or a picture was false. That the dates in the document should match with the dates that it was trying to incriminate in real life, if there were small crinkles on the side but the paper is still new then the document was copied in a rush; it was probably real. The pictures were that she should look straight at the edge of their bodies and check if there is any kind of distortion, then to the present ninja there and see if they too were distorted; no falsified picture was ever so present that the small bubble of difference was completely cut out. This was one of those moments she wished Jiraiya was present so he could use his experience in catching small details to look over the documents but for now the pictures looked too convincing to just throw away.

The flipped to the last page and just barely held her hands back from squeezing the file; the document was short but detailed enough. It spoke about a military coup, led by Danzo, to usurp Tsunade as Hokage. This was to take place in about a year where the old war hawk was sure he would have enough shinobi. He had even gone to the extent he had separated a few ROOT ninja and were training them specifically for the coup. This was the most recent document, coincidentally after Naruto had declined becoming a shinobi and Tsunade had threatened to cart the three elders off on one stretcher. It was Danzo, Kohoru and Homura that had personally signed the mission document. She gently dropped the thick file, making sure to close it and looked at Naruto. The boy hadn't moved throughout but was looking straight at her. He cleared his throat and spoke,

"This incriminates the three elders for criminal conspiracy and even attempted usurpation of the Hokage, a crime that is rewarded with the death. So you see, either way, those three die," she shifted in his chair and had the snake rope around the shinobi leap into the man's mouth, breaking the mask, and keep it open. Naruto stood up, walked to the ninja and broke all the seals that prevented him from speaking, he then whipped out a piece of paper from his pocket with a complex seal on it and slapped it onto the man's forehead, the kanji for 'Truth' appeared after that, "he can now confirm everything you've seen,"

And confirm he did. The truth that spewed from that man's lips could be said to look like a waterfall of words, Tsunade kept on throwing question after question and both could visibly see the effort the man was making to shut his mouth or even to bite off his tongue. All to no avail, unfortunately for him.

The woman got up from her desk and stood near the window, with her arms folded behind her, "do you think Sarutobi-sensei knew, Naruto-kun?"

The boy looked at her and shook his head, "he might have, once upon a time, but Danzo might have told him that they were disbanded," she nodded slowly, "I will ally with Konoha on something a current ally called 'Mutual benefit'. I scratch your back, you scratch mine. Deal?" he stood up and stretched his hand to her, she shook it firmly and nodded,

"Deal,"

Naruto smiled lightly and patted her hand, "You saw the plans to invade Wave right?"

"He sure is a busy old man,"

"It would be his doom," the younger blonde released her hand and walked curtly to the swirly eyed, and parched captive ROOT shinobi, "I actually didn't plan on telling you this but I'm planning to stage a surprise attack on ROOT this night; my spy in their ranks has reported that even she is left in the dark about Danzo's travelling plans, whether or not he would take a secret passage or if he would just decide to go today, all she and her peers were to do is be prepared,"

The Senju Hokage rubbed the bridge of her nose and blew out some air, "tonight then. I'll put up an arrest warrant for Kohoru and Homura," she did so quickly and snapped her fingers, a cat mask wearing ANBU flickered before her and knelt down, she silently gave her the piece of paper and with only a half second pause in surprise the ninja leaped out of the window to go and relay this to her commander.

Both blonde village leaders had agreed that since Naruto had the map of the main ROOT headquarters in his mind he would lead most of the shinobi in the charge, the squad they were taking was small but extremely renowned for getting the job done. Within the hour both spoke and outlined the full detail of Wave's alliance with Konoha, and by extension the rest of the village alliance, while at the same time discussing on how they would take down a bunker filled with brain washed shinobi. They had agreed to execute all the ROOT shinobi that were in all directly above the lowest rung. This meant only the newly inducted children that the loyalty seal and the brain washing had not fully sunk in would be spared and rehabilitated back into the society. Naruto had even revealed that it was Wave that master minded the take down of Hidden Star, so he wasn't averse to killing or going up against strong opponents, plus he had back up since Tsunade was coming as well.

Naruto flipped out of the window and came back thirty minutes later garbed in his combat uniform.

 _Flashback end_

The stone walled tunnel the three high ranked shinobi were creeping through slowly lit up so Naruto raised his hand and motioned at the forked path ahead, then he went into the one going to the right. The two followed after and hid behind a small raised platform that stood in front of the opening and looked to edge, noting that the ninja on the other side of the platform were going through kata in sync with each other, making the occasional yells and grunts. The reasons they weren't yet detected was because Naruto had taken the initiative to put super suppressors on each of them, knowing that suppressing her chakra was not Tsunade's stronger points. The ROOT that was looking over the training was a female with a short brown hime cut hair and lithe build. The seventeen year old reformed ROOT ANBU turned spy was not aware of the fact that an attack was under way but she had assured Daku that she would be ready if it was.

The headquarters was split into smaller groups, largest was where the new inductees, or the orphans and kidnapped children, were shoved into rooms and forced to watch mind numbing slides and videos, hypnotizing them slowly until the slides of Danzo going about his day to day work, looking like a model human being. This usually took six months to set in the minds of the inductees before the loyalty seal was unwillingly administered, making it so that the idea that Danzo was all good would be fractured but it would be too late to deny it; all their memories now include Danzo and how best to serve him. The lucky ones that weren't completely brain washed (Mole, Fuu and Torune) and this was only because they had been given into the program by their parents (Mole) or by themselves (Fuu and Torune). Mole didn't have any memory of her parents, seeing as she had been inducted into the program when she was four, but she had sworn to kill them if she ever found out who they were. The program was only able to acquire new members every eight months or so.

Naruto used his pointer and middle finger to point to his far right and Daku blurred over there and hid in the shadow of an exit, Naruto sent an 'ok' signal to Tsunade and used his hands to count down from three. Three, two, one…

He threw his arms out over the platform, over Mole, and muttered, _"Ninja art: Fuinjutsu: Child of paper chaos,"_ the containment seals that Danzo had put around the training ground prevented even the smallest of tremors to be felt, while in reality catastrophe had fallen on all of the unsuspecting ROOT ninja. Mole whirled around and slid a nodachi out of its sheath that was on her left thigh, but she quickly dropped to her knee before Naruto as he stepped forward; he nodded silently to her and his eyes looked at the blazing inferno that had consumed everyone present, no one was spared. "It's time, Mole,"

She muffled her agreement and followed after her master as he walked around the bon fire, he turned to Tsunade and said, "The base is too large for just us four to be walking together; for all we know Danzo is preparing to flee. We best split up,"

"Agreed, I'm with you," she said but Naruto shook his head,

"No, I'm going with Daku," he spoke quickly before she could voice her disagreement, "I have been fighting alongside Daku for a while, we work well together. Mole's fighting style complements yours, trust me," the blonde woman clenched her teeth in her frustration but conceded, "you two can take right, we'll go left," and both teams of two split up.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

The fight started immediately both master and dark shadow went through the tunnel. Daku bent away from a kunai slash and kicked another whole Naruto flipped above him and smashed his elbow down on the unsuspecting ninja. Both leaned away from sword slashes and punched their opponents; Daku released a few weight seals and Naruto reduced his own weight seals as well and blurred down the tunnel. Naruto, with a fist full of shuriken, peppered a few featureless shinobi and Daku shot a barrage of wood spikes through another cluster of ROOT ninja. They burst into a room and were surrounded; the seal masters blue barrier prevents ninja from getting to him and he used two snake ropes, flowing with wind chakra, and sliced through the multitude, while Daku would punch holes through those that came after him, occasionally throwing some poor ninja at Naruto so they too can be diced up.

The room began filling up more and Naruto held a single _ram_ hand seal and touched the ground with his palm, a seal spiralled to life and Daku leaped up as it too effect; the hoard that were in the room froze abruptly in various attacking positions and the chakra began siphoning out of them, painfully and forcefully, into a storage seal on his pinkie finger. Daku was busy leaping from ninja to ninja, cracking their necks, spinning it completely to the other side and shooting wood stakes at others. Naruto and Daku sped out of the room, spattered in blood and sweat, to a much bigger room and a much bigger training ground, where they met up with team Kakashi, who were already decimating the ninja there, Shikaku had chosen to look over the new and semi-hypnotized inductees,

" _Lightning release: Deadly tracking fangs,"_ Kakashi slapped his palms into the ground and arcs of lightning bounced through the ground and electrocuted a wave of ROOT ninja, he too was covered in blood but not that much. He looked over his shoulder and watched as Cat slit a ninjas throat and impaled her katana clean through another, she kicked the person off and flipped through two on handed hand seals,

" _Hazy moon night,"_ she swung her sword in a circle, her team ducked the after images that flew after the motion and winced at all the unsuspecting ninja that had been cleaved in half, not that many by many enough. She got into her basic kenjutsu stance and leaped into the fray again, disappearing in a flurry of sword strokes and slicing. Kakashi leaped after her to provide a sort of back up and both worked in tandem, dealing death to all that came to them,

Mantis and Stork also looked like they weren't in too much problems. Stork, wielding a seven foot long bow staff, swung the weapon around and Mantis leaped from ROOT ninja to ROOT ninja, jamming his kunai through their heads and going after another without wasting any time. What the ANBU team had in common was that all were in some way injured; Yugao had a thick slash to her midsection, exposing her bleeding stomach, Stork had purple bruises on his exposed arms and Mantis' mask was broken at the top a bit, letting all see his teal green eyes, making Naruto realize that he too had blonde hair, after the man's protective head gear had fallen off as well. Mantis was a Yamanaka and Stork was probably a Nara, with the way he was non-verbally telling Mantis where to land next so he can deal out a fatal blow…or from all the shadow attacks he was using to hold the ROOT ninja in place while Mantis was nimbly moving around and decapitating them.

Naruto thrust his arms out and a wave of fire sealed paper flew out like shuriken and sliced through a cluster of incoming ninja, _"Ninja art: Paper shuriken barrage,"_ the attack cut through the ninja and they were much too close to each other to dodge. He mentally winced when he saw half of a person's face slip off and splatter on the ground, his sensory seals flared and he spun on his feet so he could use his blue rectangular shield to catch a small tanto-walking stick strike courtesy of Danzo, his tree roots seals powered on and he shoved the man away; he put both of his hand in a single hand seal, _"Multiple shadow clone technique,"_ more clones than he could count exploded into sight and mixed into the fray, rushing to Danzo and giving Naruto some time to form a plan.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Your treachery will be your end, Mole," Torune droned as his poisonous kakaichu buzzed out of his sleeves and his shoulders, they hummed dangerously as they formed a sort of intimidating mass of darkness behind the Aburame man. Mole, crouched into her signature taijutsu style, stared at the older ROOT shinobi, then to the man's partner, Fu Yamanaka,

"After all Danzo-sama has done for you," the orange man tutted in disappointment, he too was in a guarded but at the same time relaxed stance, with both of his palms together and his back straight. The man looked over at his former comrade; seeing that she wore a pitch black one sleeved shirt with tight ANBU grade pants and sandals that went up to her mid-calf, she also had on black flak jacket. Her hands clenched in their fingerless gloves and her short tanto was grasped in her left hand, while her right hand was on the ground, palm open.

Tsunade looked at both of their opponents and remembered their individual information; she looked at Mole from the corner of her eyes and the younger woman caught her eye, "I'll handle Torune, I know how to beat his kakaichu," the Wave black ops ninja muttered, "don't let Fu use any ninjutsu, Tsunade-sama,"

"You really think you can beat me, Mole," Torune said from across the empty, bloody training ground; they had just appeared as Danzo commanded them to take care of her, they were too late to save the ROOT shinobi both Senju and Mole had killed. Tsunade was breathing slightly heavier with blood drenching her fists and her feet, while Mole only had blood on her weapon and her plain mask,

"Yes," she whispered to herself, responding to what the Aburame had said.

The women as one raced to the men and the men did so as well. Fu hung back and fired through a few set of hand seals, but was cut short as he had to flip away from an earth shock wave Tsunade had sent over, the Sannin pulled her fist back and smashed it on the ground, a spire of rock fired out under the Yamanaka but the man proved his rank in the ROOT echelon by making sure the deadly attack flew under him. He got back up right and winced when he saw two new Tsunade's standing beside the original.

Mole scampered under Torune's right hook, making sure to roll away from the mass of poisonous bugs behind him, the man mentally commanded his bugs to go after her and she used her dexterity to flip side ways from the tsunami that came after her, just before her feet could meet the bugs under her she poofed away in a smoky body replacement technique, frustrating the man and having him order his hive to find her, they located her clinging to the edge of the walls, seeing as the ground they were fighting on was now dominated by poisonous kakaichu, she flipped through four one handed hand seals, _"Lightning release: Bug zapper,"_ she used her pointer finger to point at her older opponent and short, fast arcs of lightning blasted out from the tip. Torune grit his teeth and ran lengthwise away from the attacks, wincing when he felt millions of his hive die after contacting the lightning attack.

He droned his own attack jutsu, _"Poison cloud technique,"_ a sphere of bugs formed in his hands and he blew through it, a cloud of toxic poison surged to where Mole hung on the wall. She ran across the wall away from the attack while also going through her own hand seals, a very short set,

" _Wind and Fire release: Combination jutsu: Wind meteorites,"_ she spun around, while also leaping back, and ripped off her mask to reveal her moon pale skin, she cupped her hands like she was going to yell at him and blew. The result was a massive chunk of hot gas in the shape of a sphere bursting from the hold and expanding exponentially until it made contact with the poison gas that was coming at her, she could hear the gases hiss as it came in contact with her attack, she blew four more wind meteorites and watched as the gases converged into them. Her attack had made use of deadly hot fire stored inside a bubble that sucked in whatever it came near so it would be burnt by the fire inside and she had successfully negated the life threatening Aburame attack. With the air now purified and the meteorites combusting within themselves she darted to the older man with her sword held across her chest, Torune waved at her and some of the kakaichu clouding behind him buzzed to her, she could only throw an explosive tag wrapped in a kunai at the bugs, blowing up without hesitating. Though the backlash was that some of the dead bugs wafted over her unprotected face and her one short sleeve.

She could immediately feel the beginnings of her chakra being leached and her strength reducing. Torune appeared beside her in a chakra less body flicker and he punched her side, his blow not reaching skin level but still very deadly, he followed up with another jab to her stomach, driving all air out and finally a snap kick across her face that threw her into a mass of poisonous kakaichu. He frowned when he saw her explode into smoke, but he instinctively knew that he had dealt a lot of damage to the younger jounin. Mole burst from the ground, a harsh gash across her face, and slashed him across the chest with her short weapon, he leaned away expertly and made to grab her hand but she pulled away in time and Spartan kicked him back only three steps, the space allowed her to flip away from the bugs that had attempted to creep up on her and stick on the wall again. She winced as the poison wreaked havoc in her, blood spurting out of her mouth and her ears, and that was when she decided to activate her chakra high seal…

Fu jammed his sickles end-to-end and hurled them at the Tsunade clones, the weapon whirred dangerously in the air and the clones, as well as the original, separated. The fighting ground was big enough so Tsunade didn't have to worry about stepping on a poisonous bug, so when she saw the man about to go for his signature clan jutsu she purposely slowed herself down, making it seem like she was not yet expecting the attack, _"Mind body switch technique,"_ just as his consciousness leaped out of his body to her she switched with a clone, seeing as he was a sensor type shinobi he knew who the original Tsunade was in the first place. Before he could cancel his jutsu the Sannin, using a kunai she had picked from a dead ROOT ninja, flung the weapon and cleanly slit the clones throat; years of being a shinobi taught her a few things and a few holes in some clan based kekkai genkai.

There was silence in their half of the underground training ground, the clones head snapped up as the knife left a deep trail going through. The earth clone she had summoned didn't dispel immediately, seeing as she had pumped enough of her chakra to keep it corporal for a time even after the fatal wound. Both the clone and Fu stood stock still in the same position as each other, the orange haired man didn't even have the time for his body to fall down before the clone was cut. A thick cut across his neck appeared and he fell on his knees, the clone following suit, blood gurgled out of his mouth and he cancelled his jutsu. He grabbed hold of his profusely bleeding throat and struggled to his feet, his eyes were too hazy to focus on one single thing so he was looking around, confused and dying. This meant that even though he could sense the incoming attack he was only able to bend away fractionally so his whole head wasn't caved in, though this didn't save him from being thrown far across the fight zone and on the wall. He slowly slid to the ground and his head lolled to the side tiredly, feeling the back of his skull break apart. He fell down from the man shaped hole in the wall and welcomed the chakra enhanced stomp to his head, courtesy of the Slug Sannin. She dusted her hands and smirked to herself, "still got it,"

Her eyes then widened as she felt the ground tremble, she traced the tremors to the source on the other side of the fight zone and cursed.

Hot pink fire licked across of Mole's body, growing higher and higher until it fully consumed her, leaving only her head in view, with the complex kanji for 'Chakra high' on her forehead. Her face was set in a serene smile and her hands slowly inched together into a _monkey_ hand seal, she was still attached to the wall. She could feel the nature chakra thicken her own chakra and all of her wounds healing over; she could even visibly see the fatal poison leaching out of her pores as sweat. Torune stared at her blankly; his kakaichu paused as well, so when she leaped off the wall and stepped on the wave of poisonous bugs, he frowned as his insects were immediately burned on contact. He wisely took the initiative to attack her, _"Jar of poison,"_ the poison that his bugs had been pouring into the dead corpse around him began to stack on top of each other, being pushed by the surprisingly strong insects until they formed a barrier of dead bodies. The corpses slowly expelling deadly gas into the air, as Mole began her slow walk forward to her old comrade, and then the barrier that separated him from her exploded into a massive swarm of Rinkaichu (poisonous kakaichu).

The loudly buzzing insects flew at the woman and she went through some hand seals, _"Fire release: Great fireball jutsu,"_ the molten ball of fire that she blew out covered the entirety of her their side of the fight zone, shining a deep pink instead of the usual red, and the fire washed over the arriving insects and burnt them all to a crisp, not stopping until it came to Torune. The man's eyes widened in horror at the single jutsu she had used and he quickly substituted himself with a dead body, just barely, the pink ball of fire met the wall and shook the very foundations of the underground base, still not felt by konoha's populace. The young woman quickly got into her signature taijutsu style and held her short tanto forward, before she blasted to where she assumed he had switched to. Torune leaped out of her way and cursed at the smouldering grove she had made in the wall when her tanto cut across it, her movement were faster than anything he anticipated and he began to visibly struggle away from her attacks. At least now he knew what his victims felt when they trying to prevent him from touching them; just her fist wafting across his chest had burnt his military grade black shirt. The pink fire blazing around her increased in its intensity and encased the Aburame, preventing him from escaping. He hissed when he couldn't even switch out of the circle of fire she had created; the fire closed up above them. Mole then slapped her palms together and the fire filled up inside, burning the older jounin to a crisp but only putting her in a state of aware bliss.

Mole did all of this with her serene smile still plastered on her face. The fire lessened and returned to her body, before the seal on her forehead flickered out of sight; her knees wobbled tiredly, feeling her chakra density reduce as the nature chakra was leached out of her. Tsunade caught her before she could fall and lowered her to the ground, "neat trick, kid," she looked over the younger woman and smirked slightly, "You're not even hurt,"

"Naruto-sama…he made the seal," she was out of breathe but not hurt. Tsunade nodded and waited for the Wave black ops ninja to regain composure before both ran to where the rest of the ROOT elimination team was.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto rammed his blue rectangular shield against Danzo and both engaged in a sort of power tussle, with only a few small pockets of ROOT shinobi remaining, distracting Kakashi and his team from coming to his aid. Daku flickered to sight behind the bandage covered man and swung his leg in a fast snap kick to his head, the attack would have removed any lesser man but Danzo wasn't any lesser man, she used his free hand to catch the high jounin speed kick and twisted it around, flipping Daku away but the dark shadow dexterously landed on his feet. Naruto punched his blue shield from inside and a vibration threw Danzo clear away, giving him time to think up something he could use to take down the Sandaime's rival in both strength and intelligence. He focused with all his might for a tingle and Daku appeared beside him, the boy slipped a paper seal to the dark shadow and he knew exactly what to do with it, but not yet.

Naruto completely reduced his weight seals and both master and dark shadow ran at their opponent. The last member of the Shimura clan droned out a jutsu after he flashed through three seals, _"Wind release: Vacuum sphere,"_ he then began spitting out fist sized bubbles of air in random directions; some even killed some of his remaining ninja. Naruto pulled up his left sleeve and quickly unsealed a scroll without any chakra smoke billowing, he threw the scroll open and it seemed to acquire a mind of its own; it circled both Naruto and Daku and absorbed the dangerous B rank attack spheres. He rolled up the scroll and threw it at Danzo, blasting it accurately with a short blue beam from his chakra beam seal. The result was that his own attack exploded out of the destroyed scroll and went after him. The older man frowned at this and cut through the spheres with his tanto-walking stick, imbued with his wind chakra to elongate the weapon and sharpen it. He slashed at Daku, who had leaped at him, but the dark shadow spun in mid-air away from it; Naruto then commanded his snake ropes to go after the Shimura. The semi-sentient seal creations slithered quickly across the ground and lashed out at Danzo, the man glared at the silver ropes when his wind chakra didn't even dent them.

He cast his lone weapon at the attacking snake ropes, making sure to keep Daku at arms-length as well, _'I did not anticipate for this child to be this strong. Maybe Sai was correct; he is not to be taken lightly,'_ he tore off the bandages covering half of his face to reveal his implanted sharingan. Naruto's eyes widened fractionally, remembering a part of Mole's report that said Danzo possibly had an implanted doujutsu but he never could have guessed it would be the sharingan; this would complicate things a little but he would just have to improvise. He front flipped over the man as he reached for him, making sure to avoid his eyes, and threw his arms to him so shards of lethally sharp paper went after the man. Danzo ran away from the paper and substituted with a dead ROOT ninja, frowning when the paper subsequently exploded in a controlled plume of fire. Daku wasted no time to engage him in a fast paced taijutsu fight, going even faster and faster by the second. Danzo punched Daku's chest but the dark shadow followed the attack by leaning backwards and smashing his knee against the older man's chin, Danzo flipped sideways after the brutal attack but still landed on his feet, though his mouth was bleeding a little.

The man growled and leaped at Daku, the much faster opponent side stepped and kicked the man's chin, throwing him to Naruto. The boy rushed at the air borne Shimura and just as the man's back met his rectangular shield he punched his side of the shield and a violent vibration reverberated through Danzo and flung him back to Daku, leaving his spine shattered from the attack. The loyal dark shadow sent a spinning kick to the returning man and the he was smashed against the wall.

Deathly silence befell the fighting area as all watched the Sandaime's rival get bashed into a wall, dust blocked him from view and all assumed that the man's old, _old_ body had finally given up. Shocking all that watched the fight, Danzo got out of the hole in the wall and merely cracked his neck, before he tore off his arm bandages to reveal the ten sharingan eyes embedded there as well as the pasty white arm that had always been hidden from view. The man's sharingan covered arm fisted and he used his fist to point at Naruto, correctly assuming that if he could take down the blonde boy the dark shadow would fall as well; trees began shooting out of the ground and warping toward Naruto, the boy encased himself with his iron bubble as a tree went punched him, throwing him back a bit but he flared his tree root seals to stop his backwards movement. The boy flipped through five hand seals, _"Wind release: Cutting wind scythes,"_ he made violent motions with his hands to the incoming trees, making sure they didn't touch him, and puffed out an air of frustration when the B rank attack didn't even dent the tree. Meanwhile Daku was trying to get past the trees to take on Danzo, he wasn't too successful even with all the earth shattering punches he laid on the trees that erupted from the ground to defend the sharingan eyed wood release user.

An idea came to Naruto; his chakra beam seal sparked dangerously, arcs of lethal lightning shooting around him but not to the incoming trees. The he perfectly combined his lightning affinity with his fire affinity, _"Lightning and fire release: combination jutsu: Chakra beam!"_ with his left hand holding up his right wrist a long blast of dark purple chakra shot out of his palm and warped together, forming a sharp drill at the very tip that dug through the trees, the seal master channelled more of his chakra into the attack and was met with limited success of his attack carving a wide path through the chakra absorbing trees but not meeting the summoner. Naruto leaped through the hole that was reducing in size drastically fast, and blasted his combined attack at the man. Danzo hastily erected a rock wall but that was all but useless in containing the same attack that had weakened Orochimaru of the Sannin. The lightning fire punched a massive hole through Danzo's chest and again bashed him against the wall behind him. Naruto cancelled his attack and pulled his right fist back, calling out another attack as he punched the air in front of him, _"Fire release: Chakra beam,"_ the fire chakra beam attack was looked eerily like a blooming flower spinning out of the centre of his palm and again bashed Danzo against the wall, pushing him deeper.

The level ten seal master cut chakra off from his attack, ignoring his hot palm. He shook his hands though as his black glasses looked straight through the dust and ash that had come after his attack, frowning when Danzo again pulled himself out of the wall, though this time he only had six sharingan eyes on his right arm.

The Shimura was on the last minutes of his _Izangi_ and he would rather cut off his own tongue than die in the hands of this _**child**_ _._ He couldn't keep this beating up for long either, fading in and out of reality as his torso was repeatedly either broken apart or burnt to a crisp, and all from this _**boy.**_ He could already feel the effects of the chuck of chakra leave his body after the kinjutsu.

" _ **He's still alive, kit,"**_ Kyuubi grumbled, on his feet and looking out of Naruto's eyes,

' _Yeah, and it's getting on my nerves,'_ a sword made completely out of lightning shot out of his chakra beam seal and he grasped the corporal chakra weapon with both of his hands; even though he wasn't too good with kenjutsu he could make full use of the lightning to deal out harm. His glasses anticipated the quick appearance of the ROOT commander and he stabbed his weapon clear through the man's stomach, aware that the older man was in dire straits for chakra.

Something was wrong; Danzo began chuckling evilly, even though his head lolled his chest from exhaustion and he hunched over slightly on the arm that was through his belly. Naruto glared through his glasses at the man,

" _Demonic illusion: Shackling stakes technique,"_ after the sharingan illusion had been tiredly whispered Naruto winced as wooden stakes shot out of the ground and impaled his legs, he kept hold of the weakening man as the stakes were driven through his back, his chest, his arms and his shoulders. His incredible pain tolerance only permitted him to pant in pain and hiss with each breathe. The around him mixed together and the roof turned blood red, the ground turned mucky black, the air around them seemed palpable but Danzo was still impaled with his lightning sword; they were still in the same position they were in the real world. More stakes rained down on Naruto and his knees shook under the pain he was feeling, his mind was shutting down from the numbing pain he was in but he _refused_ to scream. He could just barely sense Daku racing to them but he was coming much too slow, so he struggled to summon up some of his legendary Uzumaki stamina and activated an experimental seal on his back, between his shoulder plates and directly over his main tenketsu.

" _Sharingan death reverse summoning,"_ the seal expanded all over his body, creating thin veins where chakra passed through and travelled across his arms like a spider and lunged at Danzo, entering his lone sharingan eye. The illusion wavered, like it was hesitant to leave and Naruto channelled more of his chakra, the genjutsu wavered even more, _"Kyu…"_

" _ **I've got you kit,"**_ the tailed beast jammed a tail into the ground and the seal turned red, then Danzo finally yelled in pain. The illusion shattered around them like glass and the man still impaled with the lightning sword slumped on the arm tiredly, Naruto kicked him back and with a swift slash he cut off the sharingan littered arm off.

Danzo fell on his back and Naruto saw that his lone sharingan eye was bleeding, the boy whipped out a kunai and slashed clean across the eye before the man could find the strength to pull another stunt. His face remained stoic amid the mans pained yells and he waved over his shoulder at Kakashi's team, telling them that he was fine, and he sealed the mukoton, sharingan covered arm into a large scroll that he sealed in a smaller scroll; just in case Danzo had remote control over the limb.

The last Senju jumped beside him and looked at him with concern, he waved it away again; he could already feel the Kyuubi chakra in his system heal his wounds, "I'm fine, Tsunade-sama, you should go and treat Team Kakashi; they need it more than me," he sent her a shaky thumb up and passed the scroll that had the sharingan eyes to herm

"We'll talk later, Naruto-kun," and she went to treat the ANBU team as well as check on the almost fully hypnotized children, leaving Naruto with Danzo.

Daku steeped beside him and bent on one knee, "I've failed you, Naruto-sama,"

"How so, Daku?"

"I was not of much help in this fight,"

"No, if you were not present with me I would might have died from exhaustion," the dark shadow nodded but stayed on his knee, "Take this mental note for me, Daku: the reverse sharingan seal, first test, shaky success but only if I use a Kyuubi tail, tighten the containment seal, the limiter seal and the chakra restraint seal inside. Get all that?" Daku nodded eagerly, "also find a way to lengthen life span of the seal," he could feel the sharingan destruction seal break apart on his back, Daku nodded, "Zabuza should be leaving for Kiri at sunrise, you may leave with him,"

"Are you certain, Naruto-sama?"

"I trust you to look over his back as well as ensure Kiri allies with Wave,"

"Thank you, master,"

Naruto smiled lightly and nodded, "You may leave,"

Daku snapped to his feet and with a parting four fingered salute he disappeared into thin air, leaving him with the one armed Shimura. Naruto threw a paper seal to the man when he was powering through some one handed seals and when the paper connected with his chest wrought iron chains burst out and tightly wrapped around the man, sucking whatever chakra he had left, using that chakra to tighten hold as well as full restraining the one armed man. This was the same seal he had given Daku at the beginning of the fight but with the development concerning Danzo they couldn't make use of it, until now.

The one eyed man glared harsh, painful death at Naruto and snarled, "Kill me. Finish me off or is that thing between your legs as dead as your leg?!"

Naruto shook his head and rolled his eyes, he smirked down at the man, "I've studied fuinjutsu for long enough to know when a trap is lying in wait, Danzo-san,"

"You…you know…"

"Since the very beginning, yes. I have not survived this long in the shinobi world without being even a little smart," he shifted the custom super restraint seal, something he had created to hold down a jinchuriki, probably even at full strength. He tore roved his detection seal over the paralyzed man's chest and smiled thinly when the 'Reverse four symbol sealing' came into sight.

Shimura Danzo's life was crumbling right before his very eyes, he could see more Konoha centric ANBU flood his hidden base to confirm the death of every single ROOT operative in the base, jamming kunai into their heads when they were faking their deaths; from the corner of his eyes he could see Tsunade attending to the barely even five year old and under orphans he had kidnapped from the orphanage a month ago, she was doing so with a Inoichi Yamanaka and a few other Yamanaka medics. He could see some ninja carting out all the knowledge he had acquired _and_ stolen since before even they were born, and now this child wouldn't even allow him to die like a ninja; with as many people going down with him.

He began to visibly struggle to summon up some chakra to activate the seal forcefully, even though he knew it wouldn't ever activate unless he was dead. The seal was supposed to seal people around into his dead body immediately after he died. Naruto shook his head in exasperation, "you're a seal master, Danzo-san, a level seven if I'm not mistaken; so you are _supposed_ to know that that seal wouldn't come on," the more experience but far younger seal master, then bent down and began to work on the seal; there were two ways he could get the seal off: by cutting off the flesh it was written on, making sure to supply it with enough of Danzo's stolen chakra until he put it in a strong containment seal, OR he could do it the old fashioned way and remove it manually. He looked at the jinchuriki restraint seal, personally tested on himself, and sighed when he saw that Danzo's own chakra wasn't enough inside for him to simulate life into the seal; leaving him with his second option.

The blonde seal master sat down with his legs crossed beside the man and got to work removing the seal, aware of the jounin and chunin ANBU eyes locked on him. He couldn't feel any hostility in their gazes, only fascination and specifically from Mole he could feel awe. All wondered just what extent the boy had pushed himself through to be able to create as many seals as he did, most even right off the bat, while still having the physical and mental strength to push through a sharingan based genjutsu and cancelling it with another custom made fuinjutsu. The ninja that watched over Naruto's early life, Team Kakashi except Kakashi after a few years, kept vigil watch, just in case a surprise attack befell them but none came.

After having the suicide seal removed from his person, Danzo was taken to a cell, enhanced by super chakra suppressors and containers so that he couldn't even summon enough chakra to light a match, then he was taken to a cell opposite his team mates; none were in the same prison cell as the other. A public trail had been scheduled for the next day and immediately that was an execution. They had all been charged with criminal conspiracy, kidnapping, fraudulent dealings within and outside fire country, heading an illegal ANBU faction as well as supporting criminal activities. There were more charges levelled on them but Naruto couldn't be bothered to remember them. The daimyo had been made aware of what was happening and told that his attendance wasn't required.

The Wave leader had agreed with the Hokage to split the knowledge they had taken from the underground base, even though technically it was konoha's. Tsunade had called it an act of good faith and Naruto in turn dropped a few Namikaze scrolls he had already gone through but had never been seen by other ninja. He made sure that the jutsu inside was below A rank, of course. The raid in the disbanded ROOT base was a joint one by Konoha and Wave so he was entitled to some of the loot but not all since he was only able to provide two, very strong, shinobi on such short notice. Likewise he was not given anything above A rank. They had agreed that Naruto's students in Konoha (Yakumo, Hinata and Sasuke) would be given chances to move from leaf to Wave if they were scheduled for training with their teacher. Naruto had opened trade between Konoha and Wave as well as with the other villages he was allied to. The boy had also requested that the rest of the genin be allowed passage to Wave if they wanted to meet him, not only his students. The two village leaders drew out a scroll and outlined their agreements and stipulations, making sure to sign and arrange for the seal to be sent to the other villages so they too can add in their signatures. The alliance Wave had with Konoha was vastly different from the one he had with the other villages because the leaf wasn't given express permission to live in Wave and vice versa.

The next day the three elders were led out to a podium Tenzo had erected with his wood release for this specific occasion, heavily held down by seals, and forced to kneel down in front of all present which just so happened to be ninety per cent of Konoha, except the too young children. Tsunade read out all over their crimes, every single one, and asked them what they plead. Only Danzo responded with an "it was all for Konoha," it was low and growled, Tsunade just nodded and ordered for a sword, Yugao presented her own katana to the Hokage. Tsunade first cut off Homura's head, then Kohoru, she looked at Danzo blankly and when she raised her hand to cleave his head off and for him to join his dead comrades he exploded into a plume of chakra smoke, in his place was the snake Sannin, Orochimaru. The man spared a glare at the cool Naruto, who stood beside the Senju Hokage, and replaced himself with a log of wood.

"I should have expected something like this," Naruto sighed, but he shrugged and his eyes zoned onto exactly where the snake Sannin was fleeing with the heavily restrained war hawk. If the stress of the journey didn't kill Danzo then the constant draining of his chakra via his seals would; he assured Tsunade that. He pointed in the general direction of where they went and hoards of tracking teams and hunter ninja went, after the prompting nod Tsunade gave.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Orochimaru ran full tilt away from the leaf village, throwing swarms of snakes behind him to delay their progress. Then he created seal-less shadow clones, pumped with enough chakra, and sent them in random directions away from him. He tree jumped with the dying elder on his shoulder and when he encountered a small cave he entered and gently set the man on the wall. He smirked widely down at the man and the man wearily looked up at him, "why…did you save…me, Orochimaru…?"

The legendary snake summoner chuckled in amusement and raised an eyebrow, "who said I saved you?" he thrust his hand through the man's neck and tore out his throat, killing him instantly, "I'm just here to take some of the Hashirama DNA in your body,"

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Ninja art: Paper shuriken barrage**_ _ **: this is a C rank attack that is a variation of Naruto's**_ _ **'Child of paper chaos'**_ _ **in the sense that the exploding fire affinity paper would fly out of his sleeves but on contact they would not explode but rather slice through their intended victim if the person is not quick enough to dodge. Naruto made use of the same concept as its counterpart; all the paper were attached to extra thin ninja wire that he had drawn wind affinity seals on so they would be fairly unseen and so that they would listen to Naruto's command, even if he changed the general direction of the attack. He created this jutsu to serve him if the conventional use of shuriken and kunai wouldn't serve his full purpose, since he can detonate the fire paper whenever he wants. No other ninja can use this jutsu.**_

 _ **Lightning release: Bug zapper**_ _ **: a B rank of unknown origins that simply shoots out a low powered bolt of lightning from the pointer finger or a higher powered bolt from the mouth.**_

 _ **Wind and Fire release: Combination jutsu: Wind meteorites**_ _ **: this is a high A rank jutsu created by an unknown member of the Uchiha clan that requires large chakra levels and monumental control over the users own wind and fire affinity. A ball of fiery hot gas in encased in a bubble of air and blown to the opponent from the mouth, the wind surrounding the ball of hot gas inside constantly sucks in whatever it is near to the fire and when a set limit is reached the jutsu would combust within itself. Mole is known to have mastered control over fire and wind affinity and has made this**_ _ **one**_ _ **of her signature attacks. The only known way to dodge this is if the person is able to replace himself with something else.**_

 _ **Lightning and fire release: combination jutsu: Chakra beam**_ _ **: this is a low S rank attack that is made when Naruto combines two affinities that 'work' well together. This jutsu had the ability to drill through chakra draining mukoton trees, so it is safe to say that when it comes in contact with a person it would be fatal; the only reason Danzo even survived the attack amid the gaping hole in his torso was because he had already cast his 'Izangi' sharingan based attack. This jutsu has two-fifth attack power of the combined chakra beam attack, add in the compatibility of the affinity type he used and that is the reason it is low S rank. Most that have witnessed this attack have either fallen to it or were spectating to the carnage that it left in its wake. Naruto had developed this attack after watching a spar between Kakashi and Sasuke where both C rank lightning attack and an A rank fire jutsu met in the middle. No other person can perform this jutsu.**_

 _ **Fire release: Chakra beam**_ _ **: this is a high A rank attack that primarily makes use of Naruto's fire affinity chakra.**_

 _ **Sharingan death reverse summoning**_ _ **: this is a highly experimental seal Naruto created a few weeks after his encounter with Itachi Uchiha. The purpose is to destroy the sharingan eyes, especially if the person is in contact. The seal would detect where the doujutsu genjutsu was coming from and skitter over there, forcing the person to either flee or step on it, and if the victim steps on it the seal would take effect and destroy the eyes. The first testing was met with success and failure, in the sense that he had to make use of Kyuubi's chakra to really break the genjutsu and the sharingan instead of his own.**_

 **Well that's done, 10, 500 words APPROXIMETLY is NO JOKE. XD**

 **The design for the rectangular shield was from Iron man's shield in 'Infinity war' (I do not own), the chakra beam was also gotten from Iron man but also from the chidori. The shield vibration attack-defence was gotten from a DC character; I'll leave you all to guess who exactly.**

 **The next chapter should have a development on the marriage contract and on Zabuza's fight with the three tails.**

 **What do you all think about the fights in the chapter? I'm in the sort of situation that I have a lot to say and limited word limit (11k max) so I apologize if the execution scene and Danzo's death was a bit rushed.**

 **Don't forget to leave a review please, that would be very much appreciated,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	16. Chapter 16

**Yo guys, thanks for all of your reviews.**

 **Depression's kicking in and I kinda feel sorry for my psychiatrist, but so far this is a way to discard the darkness…but in a way this story IS dark. Well I can assure you it's gonna get darker, that's for sure. I'll keep this up until school resumes…in about a week.**

 **To 'Dav Dinero': let's see how this goes. Though I do see potential in your idea. Thanks for the review.**

 **To 'Rangle': eh, sure.**

 **Thank you Ezeakel for your idea with this chapter. You might not see it until you read in a bit but it's there for sure.**

 **This chapter goes a little deep into how Naruto governs Wave, it is boring but there are some things you need to be made aware of. I made the Hoshi people unique, that is I gave them a sort of specified ability. Read to find out what.**

CHAPTER 16

If Zabuza Momochi, Demon of the blood Mist, could somehow send a massive kiss to Naruto he wouldn't hesitate to do so.

He had come to Kiriagakure and met with the rebel leader, Mei Terumi, who immediately recognized him. The first thing she had noticed about him was that he was fully garbed in standard Wave jounin uniform, Haku as well was in Wave uniform but the chunin hunter ninja version. This made her wonder if he was still a Kiri ninja, missing ninja but still…

He told her that he wasn't, that he worked full time for Wave country now.

Then he had set up a formal dialogue between Mei and Daku, who represented Naruto in the mission. The woman was desperate enough to get help from anyone, irrespective of their physical intimidation, but the woman would admit that the air the dark shadow exuded was _very_ arousing. Mei had agreed to sign a trading and military alliance with Wave and the rest of the village alliance _if and only if_ the minor village slash country played an active role in liberating Mist. Daku had underlined the fact that he and his comrades, Zabuza and Haku, were well equipped to take out the three tails jinchuriki. Ever curious Mei inquired on why he was so confident in his strength; Daku had responded that his master was a seal master far above jiriaya of the Sannin in expertise. That had convinced her. Though Daku had said that he was merely here to look over the fight between Zabuza and Yagura if anything was going to go wrong.

That same day the high A rank Wave swordsman had thrown a highly powered but controlled exploding tag Naruto had equipped him with after Star had been inducted into the Wave shinobi system, still under observation. The tag had latched onto the building and blew up the upper half, where the Mizukage's office resided. Needless to say he had gotten his point across straight away. The S rank Kage was less than happy for being interrupted from his morning ritual of stretching. The fight that went down wasn't what Zabuza would have hoped for; the Mizukage had shown him exactly why he was a whole rank higher than him in skill by beating him into a bloody pulp, not without making a great deal of effort though. Zabuza was proud of the bruises and cuts he had given his opponent.

Then, as Yagura was about to bring down his hook staff to crush his head he set his backup plan in motion. That plan included one seal.

The chakra high seal.

He mustered up all the strength he had left in his body and rolled away from the earth shattering blow. He flipped away and pushed chakra into the seal on his neck as he put his head cleaver into its sheath on his back. A map of his tenketsu formed on his body for all to see, starting from his neck and spider webbed to his fingers and toes. He put his palms together into a _monkey_ hand seal, a hand seal Naruto had observed allowed better control of the denser chakra his seal formed, and the water that surrounded him from all the water jutsu the two fighters had been using rose high above, three times his height and turned blood red, the water around Yagura also dyed red, leaching out from Zabuza's feet. The water behind him spun together into a small water cyclone and two sharp arms exploded out of the sides, all the while Zabuza kept his expression blank. The red cyclone monster was a construct made out of a mixture of nature chakra and Zabuza's chakra; a technique he had been practicing on for months after solo missions outside of Wave primarily toward Water country or Swamp country. It wasn't particularly easy to hold up but it got the job done.

The swordsman flipped through a set of hand seals and pushed his right palm forward in a _ram_ hand seal, _"Water release: Drilling water dragons,"_ the red cyclone raised both of its arms to the sky and red spinning dragons of death shot out of the water and zoomed to the surprised Mizukage.

On the side lines Mei looked on with wide eyes, shocked at how Zabuza was still standing despite all the chakra he had expended. Haku remained relatively calm, looking on through his Wave hunter ninja mask at the fight, he had already resolved with himself that Zabuza had the fight to himself, but the fact still remained that he wanted to show all what his own chakra high seal could do.

"How is he still fighting?" the Terumi murmured, watching as the demon of the bloody mist remained in place as red mini-cyclones burst from the ground, the swarm of drilling dragons still shooting at Yagura, and went after the Mizukage. Zabuza didn't even look the slightest bit winded by all the chakra he was using. The smaller cyclones worked as one to throw the Mist leader off balance with their deadly drilling blows and the way each knew exactly where the other was even without looking,

"Zabuza has trained himself extensively for this day, that includes with the Chakra high seal,"

"Any chance I can get my hands on one?"

"Naruto-sama only gives the seal to his most trusted confidantes, no one else,"

"Well that's a shame," the woman pouted, until a glint came to her eyes and she shuffled closer to the dark shadow, "Or, you can put a good word in for us…"

"No,"

She fluttered her eyes and huffed in frustration when he didn't even spare her a glance, Haku chuckled, "Naruto-sama is very careful with the company he keeps, maybe if you prove your good intentions to him and Wave country he can consider giving you a chakra high seal,"

"He can't resist my feminine charm," she said airily, whipping her hair to the side, Ao, who stood guard behind her with Choujuro, rolled his eye in exasperation,

"Most times Naruto-sama is like a rock, nothing can get to him; dare I say even you, Mei-sama," a year and a half of working for Naruto and he knew this fact _very_ well,

Yagura was doing his humanly best to avoid contact with the ever incoming dragon drills and the red water cyclones, smashing his hook staff on the cyclones only worked for a minute until they were reformed and doubled. You can see how this was frustrating to the same person that had been winning; Yagura spun in a circle, destroying the cyclones around him and commanded beast chakra to flow through his body.

On seeing this Zabuza smirked slightly and the cyclone monster latched a water tentacle to his back, taking Naruto's jinchuriki containment seal, the chakra creation stretched his drill arms toward Yagura and just as he was almost in his three tails form it impacted his chest. Wrought iron chains erupted out of the centre of the seal and wrapped around the man, forcefully sucking out his chakra and using that same chakra to thicken and tighten the chains around him. The Mizukage released hold from his staff in his shock and fell backwards, still fully human and weakening at an alarming rate. The jinchuriki containment seal was fully capable of holding Naruto down in his five tailed form so he was fairly confident it could keep the three tails contained.

From that point order returned to the fighting area, besides the noisy swishing of the red spinning cyclone behind Zabuza, it was smooth sailing. The Wave jounin commanded the drill like arms on the original red cyclone to drill through Yagura, bypassing the containment seal. It was one thing to be a jinchuriki and it was another to be a weakened jinchuriki.

Yagura, the Bloody Mizukage, succumbed to his wounds and died.  
 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed, _'why me? Why now?'_ it didn't help that Kyuubi was sniggering inside him, making kissing noises and quite loudly at that. He opened his sky blue eyes and looked at the small Sand delegation that sat in the Hokage's office; Gaara, Kankuro and Temari, their guards stood outside the office. Tsunade smirked in amusement at the look on Naruto's face after the Sand siblings had said their purpose of coming, "I'm sorry, Gaara-dono, but I will have to decline,"

"Might I ask why?" the sand user said, the red head raised an eyebrow at his fellow young village leader then looked to his sister from the corner of his eyes; Temari was fairly desirable, officially dubbed the sand flower for her beauty and her grace, any man would have been more than eager to court her. Except Naruto, it seemed. The girl wasn't taking his reply as happily as her siblings would have thought, she kept her face emotionless but she harshly squeezed the hand grip of her chair, staring at Naruto who wasn't even looking at her in the first place,

"I have too much on my plate at the moment to focus on courting anyone,"

Gaara opened his mouth to respond but Temari beat him to it, "So your saying I'm not worth the effort?"

Kankuro, the puppet master, shuffled deeper into his chair and muttered, "uh oh," he silently motioned for his Kazekage brother to hold up, knowing the boy wasn't aware of the little signs that Temari was mad, and if Temari was mad Temari should _**never**_ be interrupted. Never.

Sadly Naruto didn't notice the warnings.

"I have my priorities set; Wave comes before anything and that includes marriage,"

Tsunade sighed silently and her head lowered a bit after hearing this, she muttered, "Now you've done it…"

' _Wave leader be damned,'_ Temari snarled in her mind and she stood up and walked up to Naruto's chair, glaring down with all the hate she could muster in her body, "are you telling me that you won't even try to fit me and my needs in your oh so busy schedule, you won't even try?"

"I'm sorry but no," he smiled apologetically, breaking some of the fight in Temari's heart but she remained strong, "you're a nice girl and I can imagine you will make a great wife but I need to focus on making my village stronger,"

Her shoulders sagged in disappointment, she nodded dejectedly and went back to her seat, "I understand,"

Everyone else in the room sighed in relief; Temari had not caused a war by lashing out at Naruto. Temari could understand Naruto's position; Wave was a cesspool before he had liberated it and now it was a growing economy and ninja village that was very well connected. The marriage contract will have to be ripped up. This was the time Naruto had noticed the full impact of what he had said to her; she had been resolving with herself that she was getting married off to a person and she had already given up hope of backing out herself, so she had to drill the idea into her mind that she was going to be a wife no matter what, she might even grow to truly love him. But now she was being rejected by the first ever person she could see herself with, it wasn't a nice feeling.

"Let us set up a mutual benefit alliance, Gaara-dono," the formerly disappointed sand user perked up at this and nodded. The stipulations they gave were similar to that of konoha's but the Sand had a little bit of more walking room in Wave so their ninja would be able to acquire a long staying guest tattoo if they wished. Konoha ninja were only permitted to stay a maximum of one month before they would have to leave or if their stay was vital they would have to meet the administrators in charge of giving the visitors tattoos. This addition ignited a small fire in Temari; she clenched her fists on her lap with determination in her eyes,

' _I'll have the chance to make him like me back,'_ only Naruto caught this but he mentally waved it off as her happy trade had been opened up with Wave. Just like with the Konoha alliance he stored it in a scroll so he could reach Wave and send it to the village leaders he was fully allied to, and the alliance was to be held by Yumi of Hidden Chill for safe keeping since most villages were hesitant to attack people located so far into the snow and who were also fully capable of fighting there. He had already completed what he called his communication seal and had distributed it to the other five villages.

 _One week later: 6am_

Naruto had always known that his metabolism worked more than any other human he knew; making sure that even if he ate a grown cow's weight in food he would burn off the calories accumulated within half a day. It had almost been too late for his body to regain its vital vitamin and minerals but at least he could thank his mysterious god mother, Mikoto Uchiha, for giving him groceries when he was four through to when he turned nine. His bones and his muscles strengthened and tightened more and more every day so he would have to stretch thoroughly before he could leave his apartment of the movement would tax him more than it should, this mean that he was growing taller faster than any of his peers. At the moment he was two feet taller than Sasuke and three and a half taller than Hinata.

His students had already reconciled with themselves that they would have to now look up at their teacher, literally and motivationally, if they were to receive instruction from him.

Naruto smiled lightly at his Konoha students, who were lined up in front of him in straight postures. His critical eyes looked over each and acknowledged their physical as well as mental growth.

Yakumo had more meat on her bones, the right amount for a ten year old girl. Her appalling muscle strength had increased so that she was at least able to hold her own against a regular academy strength student, if the fact that her fists and her sandal covered feet were tightly wrapped in white bandages to cover the bruises she sustained from punching and kicking the training dummies as well as sparring against Hinata and Sasuke. She was clad in a calf length white battle kimono with an orange sash wrapped around her waist, there was a slit opening from her right hip to show her ninja grade black pants. Her brown hair was cut much shorter so it mirrored Mole's, her newest idol, hime cut. He had been working with her on her genjutsu drawing speed, her taijutsu if her opponent ever got close to her and some fuinjutsu, even though she was more concentrated on compensating her weak strength with raw ninjutsu from chakra gotten from her inner beast. She had told him that she would be graduating the academy a year early and he fully supported her, especially when she had said that she wanted to specialize in espionage and infiltration.

Hinata still wore her purple jacket but it was now almost constantly unzipped to reveal her mid-riff light blue shirt and her bandage wrapped torso, her jacket sleeves covered her bandage wrapped arms but not her wrapped fingers. The wraps went up until the touched the top of her neck. She wore a mid-thigh length black skirt and light blue ninja grade tights that stopped above her ankle. Naruto had been training her the longest so he wasn't surprised that she had come the furthest; from a weak, confidence depraved girl to a strong willed teenager. He had been training her to utilize her new found muscle strength with her altered gentle fist taijutsu style, so that she would move easier and faster on her feet while she struck with the strength of a train. She wasn't too good with her fuinjutsu so he had been teaching her to separate her chakra without seals so she would be able to perform combination ninjutsu by herself; she was coming along well enough. Her father had not been particularly happy that she had been receiving external instruction besides that of her team sensei but he couldn't bring himself to care, Kureanai had not stopped their training sessions so there was no problem. Though he had advised Hinata to find a way to patch up relationship with her little sister; she would need a good friend in the main house if she was to lead the clan. He could say that Hinata would probably be able to beat a high chunin in taijutsu only. Kureanai Yuuhi had told him that her team would be going for the chunin exams hosted in Suna next year.

Sasuke Uchiha worked like a boy possessed to catch up with his other students. He had only been training under Naruto for a week but he was already on 100 pounds in the weight seals. Naruto had taken this boys strength, his ninjutsu, and had expanded on it by having him perfect control over his fire affinity. Sasuke had then been told to jog around Konoha, Naruto following after him in a steady jog, while he set fire to leaves Naruto would randomly throw at him with only his fire chakra. Naruto would then leave him with his team sensei but always with parting thoughts to the boy. Kakashi appreciated the help; it allowed him to focus more on Sakura and Sai, the latter who Tsunade had spared from death after he had been interrogated. The Uchiha still had on his usual clothes except he had on black ninja pants not shorts.

Despite all of this Naruto had kept up his own taijutsu training; he had even gone far enough to be on the third form, which was faster than Daku had anticipated. The dark shadow had cut his initial prediction in half and had said Naruto would master the style in two months. Naruto was already in low jounin speed if he was ever to rely on his hand to hand; his work ethic proved to be a great blessing.

Overall he was proud of his students and himself. He had taken in two severely confident lacking girls and had turned them into exemplary students and ninja. Sasuke was now much more mellow than he had started off; he had set his sights on Rock Lee and had said that he would want to surpass him first before he would move up to Iruka Umino, an academy teacher.

The blonde boys students were arranged before him in front of the gate, part of his parting delegation that were escorting him to Wave country, as well as Kakashi, Might Gai and Temari. Mole was also present standing protectively behind Naruto the whole time, wearing a mole mask with the Wave symbol on the forehead. She had been hanging around Naruto like a silent phantom since after ROOTs destruction, only speaking when Naruto asked her for or about something. Tattooed on her exposed arm, since her other arm was in a long sleeve, were intricately drawn four red waves inside a circle. The tattoo was to show that she was the deputy DARK commander, directly under Daku in rank. Daku was currently in Wave getting things ready for him to stay in more permanently.

The other genin team were present as well to say goodbye to the Wave leader. Naruto had chosen to wear his combat uniform underneath the ceremonial Wave leader cloak and wide brimmed hat. The fact that he was a jounin with high S rank skills in seals and ninjutsu alone intimidated them slightly but the fact that they actually knew him, more or less, reassured them that he wasn't necessarily a bad person. The blonde waved politely before he spun on his heels and ran out of the gate, with his escort team, toward Wave. The main reason he was being escorted by Konoha ninja in the first place was because it was a sort of formality just in case he was ambushed on his way to his country.

This precaution was what prevented an ambush in the first place.

Kisame snarled quietly as he watched the well protected escort team rush off to Wave; the problem lay in the fact that there were two high A rank ninja, possibly even S rank, with a B rank konouchi and three unranked teenagers with him, plus with the imminent danger of Naruto summoning Daku out of nowhere Rai alone would be in a fight for her life against two well-known speedsters. The three genin didn't even look like they were incapable of defending Naruto as well as the NEW mysterious ninja that flanked Naruto. It was with a heavy conscience that Itachi commanded him and Rai to postpone the ambush; they were seriously outnumbered and out gunned. They would have to wait a little longer.

The welcoming party was very large. All the occupants of Wave that wanted to get a peek at their leader as well as the Hoshi people (now called Hoshi clan) that wanted to get themselves into good light with the leader were present.

The only problem the members of Hoshi clan encountered was when fish traders had refused to sell their fish to members of their clan, and if they do sell it was at fraudulent prices; this had raised a small riot in the fish mongers section of outer Wave between Hoshi clan and the fishers. Daku had resolved this problem by speaking with both parties, noting that the dead merchants were mainly fish traders with families among the fishers in Wave. He had outlined that unless they wanted Wave to delve back into the chaos it was in under Gato they should learn to understand that the main culprits for killing their loved ones were not alive anymore. That they should not lay blame on the child for what the parent had done, was the summary of what he had said. He had in turn told the Star clan that they should not take matters into their own hands if they ever encountered trouble; there were organisations and people they can report to. Though the air was still tense between the clan and the fishers there had not been any reported problems.

Naruto, who towered over some of the adults, waved with a light smile on his face and formally announced that he was the leader. The mass of people that followed Naruto around the village as he visited the buildings he had commissioned and the ones he had rehabilitated could be considered ridiculous. Mole and Daku had to work full time to cover Naruto's back and prevent some fan girls from out rightly leaping onto their boss. He visited the library, spoke with the head librarian there and was given a tour of the place. The library was a monumental structure that had been built with four stories classified by importance; the book shelves almost reached to the roof and were organized in concentric circles with reading areas being around the edges and at the centre, there were even ladders set in place for any book higher than they could grasp. The library contained all the Uzumaki knowledge on the top level, which was locked off from public use, the Namikaze clan scrolls, Hoshi scrolls that weren't clan centric and by that he meant anything above A rank, his own personal studies in fuinjutsu in the locked up S rank section and the scrolls Daku had copied from konoha's library. The head librarian was an old graduate from the civilian teacher's academy that had only headed the place for a month.

The seal master than visited the markets, both in outer and inner Wave markets; opening up the newly constructed mall for service. He visited the elderly homes and the orphanages; making sure to keep a genuine smile on his face at all the wide eyed orphans that looked at him, ruffling their heads and walking around with the Wave born head matron. The short, fat woman had expressed her appreciation for the nursery he had added to the building as well as the increase in fund, citing the fact that the children under her care weren't complaining about torn clothes or bland food anymore.

The hordes of Wave citizens then followed him to Hoshi clan compound in outer Wave, stopping at the gate when the Hoshi gatekeepers had insisted they stay outside. Naruto didn't mind but he had said that he will enter with his guards, the gatekeepers didn't mind. The young Wave leader had met with the Hoshi clan head and the elders and had discussed on how the clan was coping in a new place. The clan head had told him that quite frankly Wave was much more fertile than their home village but had made it expressly known that they would keep the peace in Wave as long as the civilians did their part as well. Naruto had then made it aware to him that he planned on destroying the pink meteorite because it brought more harm than it should, but the elders had implored that he shouldn't destroy it but rather harness the energy somehow. The Uzumaki had outlined the fact that Wave already had an electrical grid and that there were solar power seals on each building in case the grid ever failed. The two parties had reached an impasse on where they agreed to store the star in the leader's tower under Naruto's blood seal. The Hoshi clan still didn't like Naruto all that much for making them move out of their ancestral home but they did grudgingly give him credit for what he had done for Wave; the conditions they stayed in were a bit better than in Hoshigakure. Naruto was made aware of the fact that Hoshi clan specialized in wind release and fighting with the bow staff, this was with so much expertise that he could even go as far as classify the ability as a clan based trait.

He then took a trip to the civilian academy, read quickly through student's general report and commented on a few. Then he went to the ninja academy to meet up with Rat and discuss on the students development; the reformed ROOT ninja turned chunin ninja headmaster had taken him on a tour through the structure, with the Wave citizens again made to stay outside so they wouldn't congest the halls. Both civilian and ninja academies were designed identically except the ninja academy had training grounds at the back and the civilian academy had more rooms for art and science. Rat had explained to him in detail that the ninja academy wasn't in dire need of anything but a well-trained fuinjutsu teacher since the Fang and Chill shinobi teachers weren't too versed in the subtle art. Naruto had told him that he can set Daku to teach a class of _willing_ students up to level one of mastery and if they wished to expand on that knowledge after a year they would be taught up to level three; if they wanted to go further than that after they graduate they could have access to the B rank fuinjutsu section of the library. He looked through the year and a half report of the students and raised his eyebrows on how they were doing; they were all relatively average, only a few ones that perked his interest, but there was one student that was particularly horrible in his studies. He had to store that name for later.

The last place he went to was the leader's tower, where he told all of the gathered Wave citizens that they could go back to their daily lives. He was lead around by the Head of Staff, a woman named Tsunami. Even though he was the one that drew the blue print for altering the former Wave daimyos palace he didn't know the place too well so he made sure to store everything in his head, from the servants quarters in the west side to the bar on the east side.

Needless to say it was past midnight when he went to his room in the tower for a well-deserved rest.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Three months later_

We now find Naruto sitting behind his desk, sifting through the mission report his personal assistant, Frog, had gone through. The Hoshi clan members were still behaving aloof and not obeying orders immediately but it wasn't as bad as it was three months ago, but still the missions were successful. Add in all the documents he had to go through, approve and disapprove of that concerned helping Kiri rebuild whatever they had lost in their war. He stamped his approval for some fund to be sent over to the major hidden village.

The real Daku sat to his right, going through some of the mission reports as well, lending a helping hand to his master; frog did so as well from Naruto's left. Even though the DARK black ops ninja had his own desk in the room before the leader's office Naruto had said he should stick around a bit longer in case he wanted his opinion on something concerning the citizens.

Frog then stood and lightly dropped a thick file filled with ninja academy graduates. The blonde boy sighed and rubbed his eyes; paper work never got any easier. The shinobi council had already put the students in teams that complemented each other but it was up to Naruto to vet the selections before the students were told as well as give them team sensei that would have to test each team. Naruto carefully scanned each individual student, their strengths, weaknesses and development speed; each one in teams of three, then he looked through the list of Chill, Smoke, Fang, Waterfall and Marsh shinobi he had under him. He gave each three man team sensei but paused when he encountered a familiar name,

"Daku," he called and the dark shadow looked up at him from his bent position, "what do you know about Inari?"

"I have observed that he is too eager to impress; he once performed a high kick in a spar but he was far from ready to execute it, he lost."

"How is his relationship with his classmates?"

"Rat has called him a class clown, that he is very outgoing and loud,"

Naruto pursed his lips and stared at the widely grinning brown haired boy in the picture; he set the boys file aside and looked at who he had been teamed with. He smirked fractionally and set the whole team aside.

There were more Wave born and Hoshi clan members that were graduating from the civilian schools and were being inducted more into everyday life. There were more indigenous workers in the electrical grid and in the water board, this meant that the number of Smoke and Marsh shinobi that worked there respectively drastically dropped until there was only one in each establishment that was only there to supervise day to day proceedings. Hoshi members now made up most of Wave's developing police force but the Wave people were extremely hesitant to welcome them. Gradually Wave was becoming more and more self-reliant. This didn't mean that the shinobi that had helped out were kicked back to their villages; they were as much allowed to stay for as long as they wish, they could also work wherever they wished to work, though they weren't the predominant ones there anymore.

Naruto rolled his neck and read the weekly report from the electrical grid; the electrical malfunction that had happened a while ago was due to an increase in moisture in the air, the fisher men had said that that meant the sea level was rising. He was really glad he had the solar power back up energy seals put on the roof of the houses or there might have been pandemonium throughout. He signed for the walls to be fortified so that water wouldn't leak in where water wasn't needed, especially in Wave central where shops and establishments water would destroy resided; he had taken the initiative to make the houses and farms in outer Wave to be resilient to water than those in Wave central. Besides most of the crops Wave grew relied on irrigation. He had given the head of the electrical grid a seal to put in the sentry station there for a large invisible dome to cover the whole institution if there was ever a rise in humidity, as measured periodically from the hygrometers. The seals were to protect the electrical equipment inside.

The Wave leader sighed as he read a border patrol report from Haku. The older teen had written that there was an influx of Kumo ninja that were scouting out Wave's borders. This was to be expected since it had been made public about his position, he just hoped that Kumo wouldn't do something they would regret, and by that he meant attack Wave. His country was allied with three major hidden villages and five minor hidden villages, if Hidden Lightening decided to launch an attack, even if they were allied with Hidden Rock, they would be crushed. Naruto didn't particularly like violence unless it could be avoided so he wrote a letter to the Raikage, A, and politely told him that if he was intrigued about his village all he had to do was send a delegation to look around, and if an alliance came after this, because Kumo textiles were a valued commodity, then he would gladly sign. He set the letter aside for Daku to personally give the Kage his letter.

Naruto worked well into the night until he took a well-deserved break and made a midnight food run to a ramen stand in the mall. It didn't help that he was still being swarmed by citizens that also worked at night; he could agree that after all he had done he was a sort of celebrity but he was always used to staying away from the spotlight. Though he did appreciate the company.

Naruto smiled at a flustered woman that had served him a bowl of ramen; it wasn't the first time he had come to her restaurant but she was always pushed to work quickly with the influx of customers that came with him. He briefly noted to himself that he would have to use a Henge to return next time. The small break he had allowed himself really allowed him to think; he was almost brushing into level ten in his fuinjutsu, he had learnt more ninjutsu and he was now high jounin in his taijutsu, though he was sure that with his seals and his ninjutsu, hand-to-hand would be a last resort. He was low chunin with a blade but he didn't mind, with the kind of swords he used he didn't need too much experience. After a spar with Mole and he was confident he could take down mid S rank ninja, even if he didn't trap them with a seal. He swirled his chop sticks in the broth idly and thought; there were no new buildings being constructed that he should be made aware of but he still felt like there was one last very important building he needed commissioned.

It was as he was roof hopping back to the leaders tower did it dawn to him. He stopped on the hospital roof and used the high vantage point to look over the walls that separated outer Wave from Wave central to look at the Hoshi clan members being trained by Mole before they could be inducted into DARK. He could roughly guess that they were in training ground thirty seven performing physically tiring exercises that Mole was yelling for them to do. They had been tested for two months and Mole had said that they would be ready in another month if things went smoothly; so far there were only five casualties from the training. The medic had said that it was muscle tears and chakra exhaustion, and that they would be back in action in a week. If the five casualties ever wanted to return back to the training they would have to go through a more intense training to catch up, the ninja had declined saying that they preferred being regular jounin. He shook his head and focused on his first thought; the last major structure to be constructed. Very soon his village would reach a higher global recognition and the students would have to increase rank to chunin. He turned with a swish of his leader robes and continued roof hopping to his office, his mind was a buzz of building plans. He had no problem sending qualified genin to other villages for the chunin exams but he would like to host one himself. He leaped through the window and immediately scheduled a meeting with architects, stone masons and carpenters to design Wave's very own chunin exam arena.

The blonde now thirteen year old boy was too excited to sleep anymore.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"…Lastly, team seventeen: Akihiko Taru, Jiro Kaori and Kenji Kaori. Your sensei will be Chiko Billy. You are all to wait here until your sensei come to retrieve you; if you did not hear your name wait behind," the class sensei for the graduating class finished, the class broke out in low murmurs and the students shuffled to whoever they were team with. Some squealed in joy when they had discovered they had been teamed with each other and some glared daggers at each other. The class slowly began to empty with each respective sensei coming in to retrieve their genin until three genin remained seated. Some genin that passed them even sent sympathetic looks as they exited the room. Strange enough there wasn't a team three.

Inari screwed his lips to the side as he pondered on why he and the other two were being singled out; he was fairly sure that even though he just barely passed the academy he was still eligible as a ninja. The brown haired boy was sitting at the far front to the right wearing his forehead protector proudly on his forehead; he had on a plain dark blue shirt and black shorts with the standard kunai and shuriken in his thighs. The boy drummed his fingers on his desk impatiently and stared at his too calm sensei. The man winked at him and continued reading through whatever was on his desk. Another genin that had been singled out frowned as her mind drilled through everything she had done and wondered if there was a problem with her result; she had gotten top marks in every test she had been given since she entered the academy six months ago. The twelve year old silver haired girl's forehead crinkled. She had on a deep red form fitting shirt and tight pants that stopped mid-calf, her silver shoulder length hair was styled in a short pony tail. She sat at the far back of the class. The last left out genin was a nervous boy with smooth black hair, sweat poured down his face as he too wondered why he was left out. He also hadn't failed any test he had been given, even as far back as a year and a half ago. He was just a mark under the girl behind him anyway, why wasn't he put in a team? He idly rubbed his side bag that he had propped up on his lap.

The class sensei, a chubby Smoke ninja, stood up and read from a clipboard, "Inari Kaiza," the boy perked up at his name, "Manzo Noriko," the sweating black haired boy jumped a bit when he heard his name, "Hoshi Reizo Kamlyn," the silver haired Hoshi genin nodded; the door opened and in walked a tall man with a chubby face but a very slimly built body. There was a green splotchy birth mark that covered his right eye and the top corner of the right side of his lips. He was clad in standard chunin uniform. The man looked at the three genin silently and rubbed his nose,

"These them?" he asked the teacher,

"Hai, Kaeru-sama," **(frog)**

"Follow me," he briefly told the waiting genin and Inari was to leap over his desk and follow the village leader's personal assistant, Noriko went after taking deep calming breathes and finally Kamlyn trailed behind. They walked all the way out of Wave central's gates to training ground nineteen. The training ground was more heavily populated by trees with a gently flowing river passing through. Noriko gasped in surprise at who he saw sitting on a stump in the middle of the training ground sketching a birds nest that was far in front of him on a tree,

"Leader-sama!" he and Inari yelled together,

Naruto merely told them to keep their voices down and for them to sit down on the ground, "Thank you Frog, you can leave now," the black ops member nodded and body flickered away, marvelling the three genin,

Inari snorted, "Frog? What kind of name is that?" he snickered until Kamlyn bashed him on the head with her fist, "hey!"

"Thank you, Reizo,"

"Please call me Kamlyn, leader-sama, Kam for short," the Wave leader hadn't even raised his head from his work, making her wonder how he knew she had hit Inari,

"Kamlyn,"

Inari rubbed his sore head and glared at the Hoshi genin, waiting for the village leader to finish what he was doing. Naruto began speaking, "if you ever sit down and look around, _really_ look around, you would notice that there are little pockets of peace, even in a war torn place. Of all the places I could have gone to live in I chose Wave, do you want to know why?" the three genin nodded, "because is saw raw potential in the very earth, I saw potential in the air, I saw potential in the people here. I saw peace in conflict even when Gato controlled here and I chose this place to reside in because I could do something to expand that peace to cover the country and everything we touch. The village I lived in before were not too welcoming about my status as jinchuriki," the information had been made known to the people, "and they strived to take away what peace I had. Wave was a sinking nation when I came but I restored it, not fully, but I did my best, because all I ever wanted was a place I could find peace and actually strive to protect. Wave became my family and I would readily protect here with my life," the students were enthralled, even though Naruto wasn't looking at them as he said it. "Make no mistake, I have friends and acquaintances in my old village but I only really want this place to thrive," he slipped his sketchpad and pencil into his right sleeve and it disappeared right before their eyes.

Naruto looked down at the genin with his sky blue eyes, smiling his signature light smile at them. He looked into each person's eyes and immediately felt incredibly old; he was not more than two years older than the boys and girl sitting before him and he had already had three students, not including the genin sitting before him. He only wore his combat uniform.

He pointed at Inari, "Introduce yourself,"

"Uhm…I…Uhm,"

Naruto raised an amused eyebrow and rolled his eyes, "Fine, I'll go first. My name is Naruto Uzumaki, leader of Wave country. I like studying fuinjutsu, training, sketching nature, ramen, and some other things that'll bore you. I dislike disorganisation and loud noises. My hobbies are perfecting my seal work, eating ramen, and some other stuff. My goals are to be the best seal master in history and to make Wave move forward. Now you,"

"My name is Inari Kaiza, genin of Wave country. I like fish, training and my grandpa, Tazuna. I hate spoiled sports, bullies and goats," here he shivered from a memory and continued; "my hobbies are fishing with my grandpa, cooking and practicing my shurikenjutsu. My goal…my goal is become a jounin!" he pumped his fist in the air proudly. Naruto nodded for the next person to begin,

"My name is Reiza Kamlyn of the Hoshi clan, genin of Wave country. I like my family, I like my clan and I like Wave. I dislike noise makers and turnips. My hobbies are sparring with my cousin and learning new things. My goal is to take over my clan as the clan head," her last statement had made all aware that she was the sole clan heiress of the Hoshi clan; she raised her chin up and looked at Naruto proudly. Naruto pointed at the last boy and he gave a deep gulp,

"My…" he cleared his throat, "My name is Manzo Noriko, genin of Wave country. I love learning, silence and seals. I dislike noise. My hobbies are studying seals, learning new seals, training and cooking. My goal is to become the leader of Wave country,"

Naruto had of course already known all about this team from their favourite colours to their shoe sizes, but this was all for formality sake. He crossed his arms and pursed his lips; the team was made up of the dead last and two of the brightest students that had ever come out of Wave, but this didn't mean that they would work well together.

"I want to let you three in on something," they leaned in, interested in what their blonde sensei had to say, "You aren't yet genin,"

"What?! But-but we took the exams and we passed! How aren't we genin!?" Inari yelled in outrage but shut up from the blank look Naruto was giving him, he shuffled into himself when her remembered that the person in front of him had all right to take his head band and ban him from becoming a shinobi, "sorry…"

"Good. Now, I know you all passed the exams but that only qualifies you to become ninjas, not to become team mates and not even close to what a genin should be,"

"What do we have to do to become genin, Naruto-sama?" the clan heiress piped up,

"The test I want to give you is quite simple," he stood up and towered over his students ominously; he reached into his left sleeve and ever so slowly he brought out something. A coupon. "I want you all to get my order of ramen from 'Blue noodles emporium' to my office. You all know my office right?" they nodded, "good. You have four hours. Don't mess this up," he gave the coupon to Inari and took a step forward, disappearing in a seal-less shunshin, making the genin turn starry eyed at the display.

The first person to break the silence was Inari, "easy! We'll get his order in twenty minutes tops," he raised the coupon above his head and began his march to Wave central, he stopped when he noticed his other two team mates weren't following, "What are you two waiting for? We're burning daylight!"

"Do you even know where the Blue noodle emporium is?" Kam asked with a delicately raised silver eyebrow,

"Well…no. But we can ask around," the brown haired boy supplied,

" _That_ will 'burn daylight' idiot. Why do you even think he gave us four hours to get an order to his office? Something's up,"

"Leader-sama said this was a test," Noriko, the black haired boy added in, "this must carry some sort of significance,"

"One thing at a time. First, where is this blue noodle place?" Kam said,

"I know where it is; I work there part time," the black haired boy muttered,

"Why didn't you say something before?" Inari grumbled,

"Leader-sama gave us _four_ hours to get a ramen order to his office. I've done the math and it shouldn't even take us more than _thirty minutes_ ," Noriko replied right away, he looked around the empty training ground and shivered, "something's not right,"

"Lead the way, we can deal with the problem when it comes," Inari insisted,

The black haired budding seal master nodded and motioned for the other two to follow him; first Inari tucked the coupon into his kunai pouch and ran after his team mates. They phased through the invisible bubble at the Wave central gate; their seal tattoos allowing them passage, and kept up their steady sprint to the mall. Kam kept a vigilant eye around her at the everyday proceeding of the Wave people, still wondering why the wave leader had given them four hours. It wasn't until they were halfway to the mall did something happen; she nudged Noriko out of the path of a loose melon cart, saving him from being crushed. The black haired boy looked with wide eyes at how close to death he had been, Inari though kept on running. The melon cart disappeared as soon as it appeared.

"Inari, wait!" but it was too late, a large balloon that had been thrown out of nowhere exploded on his back and threw him face first into the ground, he scrambled to his feet and looked around hastily, seething mad,

"Who did that?!" the citizens merely looked at him in amusement,

Noriko rushed to him and prompted him to keep walking, making sure that he didn't touch the paint covered boy, "this is why he gave us four hours, he set traps!"

Inari pushed him to the side hastily to dodge another rampaging melon cart, the owner sped after it this time, "we need to hurry then," for the first time in long time he had his serious face on,

"Hai," both answered and kept on speeding down the street to the mall. As they burst through the revolving doors of the mall, bowling balls rattled behind them.

They were covered in muck, soot, dirt and paint from all the traps they couldn't see on time. Kam looked even worse of; she had been doused with honey and _somehow_ feathers head fallen all over her from where, she could never guess. It seemed like the twitch in her left eye was permanent as she pushed both boys away from a goat that had fallen from the ceiling, landing on her squarely. If only looks could kill, the poor creature Frog had dropped from the ceiling would have died twice over. Haku chuckled into his hand and froze over the nervously twitching Noriko's next step and the boy slid off his feet and into a lingerie store, the boys screams sounded musical. Inari ran in, with his eyes tightly shut, and pulled the boy out.

"I hate this!" Kam screamed and kicked away another goat that had been thrown at her from kami-knows-where, the goat stubbornly stayed in place but her foot hurt. "Argh!" she had completely lost composure, it was now Inari that was the calm and collected one, "this is two _**freaking**_ hours already!" her hands trembled with her anger and she kicked the fat goat again but again it didn't budge, rather it looked at her with dull eyes.

"You need to calm down Kamlyn-san," Noriko implored but the girl swivelled to him with flames ignited in her eyes,

Inari stepped in before the feathery girl could lay waste to the other boy, "he's trying to mess with us, don't let him get to you," he shook the girl's shoulders so she would look at him,

"Why would he do this?" she tore up, "it'll take days to get this out of my _hair_ ," Inari would have snorted if he wasn't almost worse off; he was pretty sure that all with all the paint and horse shit on his clothes his mother would burn it. He nodded and shook her again when she was about to break down, "I know, I know but we need to pass this test before we become ninja. You want that don't you?" she sniffed and nodded, "then get your shit together and let's keep going," he was sure if his mother heard him he would have his mouth washed with soap,

The girl gently pushed away from him and nodded resolutely.

They ran as fast as possible through the busy mall, a path carved for them with how bad the three smelt. Kam grabbed Inari's hand and pulled him to her as some horse shit dropped from the ceiling, when they turned around the excrement had already been wiped clean from the ground like it wasn't there in the first place. Noriko flipped through a few hand seals, _"Clone technique!"_ four identical but illusionary clone exploded into sight beside him and ran in different directions. Although the plan was good it couldn't fool veterans in the ninja world. Kam reached into her shuriken pouch and pulled out a two foot long metal rod, she spun it in her hands and it shoot out to seven feet. She deflected a few bowling balls and Noriko hastily removed a scroll from his side pack, and threw it open, hoping to his stars that what he was about to do worked. The simple seal for storage flashed all the way across the big scroll as he leaped ahead of his team mates, and the remaining bowling balls were immediately sealed inside on contact.

"Yes!" he rolled up the scroll and waved it over his head in celebration and Kam spared him a brief thumb up before she had to hop out of the way from another fat goat,

"Damn goats," Inari grumbled and she nodded in agreement. They burst into the blue noodle, took the order the ramen and took off to the roof. They all took in the clean air that blasted into their noses and began roof hopping to the leader's tower. They heard a loud bleat from behind them and they looked over their shoulders in horror as another fat goat hurtled to them, "scatter!" The boy tossed the ramen order that was in a leather bag, to Kam and when she slipped on some ice she tossed it to Noriko and the boy threw a blunt kunai at her as he caught the noodles in his left hand, the girl caught the kunai and he summarily pulled her back with the thin ninja wire attached to it, saving her from dropping off the hospital roof, "shit!" Kam leaped off the hospital to the roof of a bakery directly next to the leader's tower with the kunai still in her hand so she could pull Noriko as he dangled off the side of the building. He tossed the order to Inari, and hefted himself onto the building.

The filthy threesome burst through the door and pushed their way to Naruto's office. The blonde leader looked up at them in amusement, boredly reading a novel, "with five minutes to spare, I'm impressed,"

Inari tiredly shuffled to the desk and dropped the order, "you're…you're order… leader-sama," he wanted to collapse,

Naruto poked the bag with a pen, "it smells like shit,"

Kam's left eye twitched violently and she was tempted to yell out, _'well what do you expect?!"_

The blonde seal master pushed the ramen away, the first time in his life, and propped his elbows on the desk and held up his head, "before I pass you I have a simple question to ask. What have you learnt from this test?"

"That you're an ass?" surprising enough it was Noriko that muttered this, Mole giggled under her breath from her hidden post,

Naruto heard this but chose to ignore it, "yes?"

"That we need to be more aware of our surroundings?" Kam asked,

"A lesson but not the answer,"

"That we need to think with our heads before we move in," Inari said,

"Not what I'm looking for but still correct," when they couldn't answer he clued them in, "imagine all three of you did this test individually, alone,"

Their eyes widened in realization, remembering all the times they pushed themselves away from harm or even put themselves in the way of harm so it wouldn't reach their team mates. Naruto smiled brightly when they seemed to get the message he was trying to pass,

"A team is only as strong as its members; this does not only talk about the skill or the strength of a person but the heart and the will. You each performed selflessly in this test and I couldn't be any prouder to say this," the genin instinctively straightened up as the blonde teen stood up from his chair, "you all passed…Team three,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Orochimaru swirled the contexts of a phial in his right hand as he looked intently into it. He hummed and jotted something down on a note pad with his left hand; he gently dropped the phial in a rack with five other similar phials but of differing colours. The snake Sannin rubbed his hands and barely contained his excitement as he looked through a microscope at the multiplying DNA on a glass film, _'it's all coming along just nicely,'_

The man turned around and looked on the operating table, running his hands delicately over the ivory white skin of the dead shinobi he had on the table, a nameless Konoha ninja he had kidnapped after the invasion. All the experiments he had performed on the man had eventually killed him but he had been successful on one count.

"I've found an Uchiha,"

His evil chuckles rang through his laboratory and out through his corridors.

 **Authors note**

 **I apologize if this chapter seemed rushed and boring, especially Zabuza's fight with Yagura.**

 **Well that's about it. What do you all think? Please drop a review,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	17. Chapter 17

**Thanks for all of your reviews, please keep them coming.**

 **Thank you VtrCst for your review**

 **As a side not I a mistake with the heights in the last chapter. Naruto should be like 6'3 and Sasuke should be like a head shorter and Hinata should be a head and a half shorter than Naruto, or so. The heights aren't really major but…yeah…**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 17

 _One month later_

"Pein, you need to calm down," surprising enough it was Tobi that said it. Nagato had been yelling in outrage and blinding fury, the crippled man had even hefted himself upright enough to glare bloody murder at the speaker. Konan was swirly eyed at the far corner of the room after being punched in the gut by her old friend.

"Give me one good reason not to _**end**_ you right now, Madara Uchiha," Pein sneered, his purple rippled eyes were maniacally wide with anger and it would only take a single wrong word that would tip him over the edge into frothing mad hysteria; Obito could already see one of the containers for Nagato's paths creak open slowly, probably his favourite Asura path. He was not in the mood for being turned into a bloody paste at the side of the room so he made motions with his hands, telling Pein to take it easy,

"You need to save up all the strength you have, we can't have you wasting it all when you should be conserving your strength for more worthy things," even though he could just dodge an almighty attack with a well-placed kamui he didn't want to kill Pein just yet.

Pein snarled to himself and spat, "your right," he closed his eyes and rubbed his forehead to relax it, "that child and his country get on my nerves by the day," he had just received news that Sasori and Diedara had been severely injured by a coalition of Konoha and Wave shinobi from the Star clan and Daku, after they had received news of Gaara's kidnapping. The plan was to keep the Kazekage restrained enough for them to unseal the one tails and seal it into the Gedo statue. Though they had made it to the hideout and were in the process of removing Shukaku the cave entrance had been destroyed by a collaborative blow from Daku and Sakura. Sasori and Diedara just barely escaped on one of Diedara's clay dragons and since no shinobi could fly they focused their attention on getting the weak one tails holder back to his village.

When news of the villages and countries Wave was allied to reached the Akatsuki leaders ear he had now fully understood why Hidan and Kakuzu found it exceptionally hard to gain entrance into Waterfall. The Henge negating Waterfall aside, if anyone without the seal tattoo went through the water their chakra would immediately be forcefully siphoned out of their body to fortify an all elemental trap that would spring up, warning every single shinobi within Waterfall about an attempt to infiltrate the village, as well as every other authorized visiting ninja from Smoke, Chill, Fang, Marsh, Kiri, Suna, Konoha and Wave. It was a death sentence even for the zombie brothers. Kakuzu had learnt this the hard way when he had sent two shadow clones to go and test out the defence and just as the light spray from the first Henge negating waterfall touched the clones the trap had been sprung. The chakra leached out of the clones, the earth held them down, when they managed to break out they were sprayed with fire, they managed to dodge that but not the lightning field that blocked their exit and caged them. Worst part was that after that attempt the defence had been _tightened_ , if that was even possible. This was the same with any other village Wave was allied to except Kiri, Suna and Konoha.

The imminent threat of Kumo allying with Wave loomed over him when Zetsu had said that there had been a small delegation of ninja that had visited Wave a week ago. The delegation didn't contain any ninja to note of but after the visit they did not even look negatively at the country.

"I cannot take this child's insolence any longer," Pein muttered as Konan shakily got to his side once again, loyal as ever, "notify all of our members that we are to invade Wave in a week. They should be prepared," quite frankly all the members of the Akatsuki had in one way or the other encountered Wave or the other allied villages. "How are Sasori and Diedara recuperating, Konan?"

The purple haired woman said, "Diedara is back to full strength but it will take Sasori a while to re-stock his puppet army, a few days maybe,"

"That will be enough time. We capture the Kyuubi jinchuriki first but we take his beast last, _**I want him to suffer**_ ," Nagato's red hair loomed over his eyes ominously and Tobi nodded, the sharingan user left the room to go and inform the other Akatsuki members in his fool disguise,

"Nagato, will you be joining the attack,"

"If all goes wrong, which I doubt, I shall come after him myself. I trust you will be by my side," Konan nodded resolutely, "good,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Inari grabbed a shuriken from his pouch and hurled it forward; the spinning star whirred through the air and impacted on a target dummy's right shoulder. His shoulders sagged in disappointment when he heard Kam laughing at his attempt; he spied her own target and lowered his head when he saw her lone shuriken in the middle of her target's forehead. She stood confidently despite his lowering mood and this went to an all-time low when Noriko threw his own shuriken and it slashed into the targets neck. Naruto looked at the last two and gave them thumbs up but when he saw Inari's he furrowed his eyebrows.

The blonde had been testing their reaction time on how fast they could draw out a shuriken and toss it accurately. As far as he knew Noriko and Kamlyn had passed but Inari hadn't, far from it. He walked up to the dejected boy and put his hand on his shoulder, Inari looked up briefly to see who it was but looked down again, expecting a reprimand of some kind. Naruto smiled and said, "did you know I'm average with throwing weapons as well," a little lie, but it was close enough to the truth; his students looked at him with wide, surprised eyes, "yes, I didn't know how to properly throw one or at the right speed. You know what I did?" they shook their heads, "I found ways to improvise,"

"How sensei?" Noriko asked and Naruto threw his arm to Inari's targets, five paper shuriken flew out of his sleeve and he twitched his fingers slightly, they changed their original paths of being in a close circle to a sort of star formation. His paper shuriken impaled the head, the neck, the heart and the arms at the major artery located near the armpit. He twitched his fingers again and the paper weapons pulled out, zipping to him and entering his sleeve once again, "sensei is so cool…" Noriko murmured and Kam unconsciously nodded in agreement,

"I make use of ninja wire I import from smoke, the extra thin kind that is only held together by chakra,"

"But-but those are really expensive, I can't afford them," the fish loving boy said,

Naruto chuckled, "I had to start small, you know, with standard issue ninja wire until I saved up enough to get the smoke wire," he whipped out three kunai and easily threw them at Noriko's targets, which were the furthest away from him; he twitched his fingers again and the kunai changed direction from going to the stomach to the head, slicing deep in. He made a quick motion with his throwing hand and the kunai dislodged and entered his hand again. This time they noticed the ninja wire. "It all comes back to dedication and timing," The Wave leader stood back and looked over them, "you try it, Inari,"

Kamlyn and Noriko watched as Inari fumbled through his shuriken pouch for a single throwing star and a spool of thin, iron wire; he slipped the wire into the hole in the spinning star and immediately threw the weapon, it whirred through the air and he did what he saw Naruto doing, making a quick, twitching movement with his hand so the star changed direction from the left leg and sliced into the crotch. Kam stifled her giggles and Naruto gave an amused smirk at how red faced Inari went,

"It's a start,"

Team three was a sort of multi-purpose team that mainly specialized in capture and interrogation, and also infiltration and espionage. Naruto had been running drills for them for a month, going through less hard situations he could come up with and taught them ways to power on. The day's lesson was to see if they were able to make a quick draw for their standard issue weapons, and so far only Inari had a problem. Next he had Kam and Noriko keep on practicing, leaving clones to watch over them as he took Inari a little bit away from them. He spent the day showing him a way he can spool wire through shuriken quickly and how to hide it in his pouch. The boy gladly took it all and the extra tips on how to change direction of his weapons, just a little nudge or a tiny pull back and they would change formation. Two days of this sort of practice saw them finally engage in hand to hand with each other, the first match was Kamlyn versus Noriko.

Naruto had looked over konoha's academy fighting style and applauded the fact that in some way it contained every other fighting style Konoha had in its grasp but to a much lesser extent. He didn't want to copy his former village by teaching it all to the academy students so he took his time to analyse the stance with Daku testing it out. Noriko was a Wave born child, orphaned by Gato so he had to learn how to fend for himself. The black haired boy had major confidence issues but there were occasional spurts of fire in him that came out little by little after every lesson. He was among the children Naruto had placed in his orphan academy students fund a month he had allied with other villages where school going orphans that weren't adults were given a specified amount of money until they graduated, how they used the money was up to them. Noriko had spent most of his time on the streets so despite learning the new Wave academy taijutsu style he still couldn't shake off the fact that he had learnt brawling before anything else.

Noriko took a loose boxing stance and bounced on the balls of his feet, a strange style a seal master should have but Naruto had noted to himself to change it. Kam had already been in the academy since he was in Hoshigakure so she already had a fighting stance. Naruto looked between them silently and chopped his hand down sharply; Kam shot at the boy and punched at his head, Noriko diverted the punch to his head with a forearm and gave a strong upper cut to her stomach, she used the momentum of the blow to spin around and nail him on his head. The less experienced genin shook his head to clear out the cobwebs; he rolled away from a strike to his head again by her fist and flipped backwards, away from another fist. Noriko charged in with his right fist leading and feinted a blow to her neck but spun around and nailed the side of her head with his elbow. She grunted after the blow and cleared his feet from under him; he fell heavily but rolled backwards as she stomped down, narrowly missing his chest. He stumbled away from her and used his bare forearms to block a barrage of punches, ducking down when his arms couldn't take the attack again so he could send a spinning kick to the back of her head. The blow connected and she fell forward, not moving. He suspiciously crept forward and as he used his toe to nudge her arm, when she remained immobile he turned to his sensei. Just then she got back to her feet and tackled him to the ground, holding his head in place with her hands to his neck,

"Winner, Kamlyn," he pulled the girl off the boy by her collar, "you let your guard down, Noriko,"

The black haired boy coughed into his hands, "but she wasn't moving,"

"Then you hold her down with your weapon, this is a hand to hand, not pure taijutsu." Noriko nodded and Naruto patted his shoulder, "you did ok, but your brawling style doesn't have a good offense. Try incorporating the strikes from the academy style with it, it would be a great combination and I trust you to master it well,"

"Hai sensei," the boy saluted and sat down under a tree in training ground thirteen, their official team training ground,

The blonde sensei looked at the girl and found her looking up at him with wide, awaiting eyes, he sweat dropped slightly at that, "you were using Hoshi clan kata, right?"

"Hai, Naruto-sensei,"

"It's a well-rounded style, but in my opinion it's too rigid, it only works for specific attacks,"

"I don't understand, sensei," she cocked her head to the side; her clan taijutsu had been studied and tested by generations of Hoshi ninja,

"The last kick Noriko gave you did more damage than your letting on," He was right, the kick had put her out for a few seconds but the toe nudge brought her out of her daze, "your sides are exposed but your clan compensates by using their bow staff," she nodded, "keep practicing but learn how to be more fluid with your movements," it was like training Hinata all over again.

The Wave leader put his hands behind his back and looked at the last member that still hadn't sparred, he turned to Kam but discarded the idea; he had already said the major weakness of her style aloud, Inari might capitalize on this, Noriko as well. He sighed and closed his eyes, motioning for the brown haired boy to come to him, "I haven't sparred sensei," Inari said, a sly smirk was plastered on his face,

"I know. You're up against me,"

His smirk immediately cleared off his face and his eyes widened, "wha-what about the others? They can still fight,"

"Maybe another day," Naruto took a few steps backwards and motioned for Inari to come at him, "give me all you've got,"

A few seconds of hesitation later and Inari charged, he grit his teeth and threw his fist forward at him, Naruto leaned sideways and used his right hand to grab the limb, spinning Inari completely around and pushing him back. The boy face planted into the ground from this.

The fish lover growled at how fast he was taken out and rolled forward to his feet, running at Naruto with his fist raised. Naruto looked on and ducked the blow, punching Inari's gut and just as the boy flew back he pulled him back and swept his feet from under him, planting him on his face again. Naruto slipped away from a kunai slash and used his shin protectors to defend against another sloppy slash; he used the same raised leg to push the boy's face away. Inari just charged in again and went for a flying kick, the blonde sensei easily caught the attack, relishing in the wide eyed look his student gave him before he twisted his wrist and spun the boy in the air. He stepped back as the brown haired boy hit the ground with a small thud, Naruto slinked forward and kicked the kunai away and pointing his fist straight at Inari's face, "that's enough,"

The rest of the day was of them running through muscle building exercises and a group spar against Naruto so that they would get a feel for their abilities and develop instinctive knowledge on how best to work together. The moment Kam feinted a downward smash with her staff to his head but knelt on the ground in front of him so Noriko could use her back as a spring board to punch him, he knew he they were on the right track. Their team meetings always started at five in the morning with a sprint around outer Wave, then a team spar, then chakra control exercises he would give them a break at noon when he would have to return to the office, leaving some tips and advice until he returned at six in the evening for a team dinner, to create a sense of camaraderie. Though they could only meet five times a week, while the remaining two days was spent for their own personal lives. During the five days they would meet up they would gather in his office at night, two hours before midnight, to continue training but more mental than physical, like chakra exercises that weren't surface walking or senbon balancing. This chakra control exercise was when they were given a closed cylinder with a small drop of water inside and move drops of water from one side to the other without shaking the cylinder; the exercise varied by affinity to affinity but since all the members of his team had water affinity, and wind for Kam, it was fine. On the fourth day in the week, when they had started fighting more as a team by using each other a diversions he had chosen for the team dinners to be in his home, the leaders tower.

The room he had chosen was one of the smaller, cozier rooms with a table in the middle and four chairs around. Naruto sat down at the head of the table and motioned for his three students to do so as well, and then some servants began flitting into the room and serving food, most that were far above the students pay grade. Inari and Noriko had taken Naruto's hospitality by shoving all they could down their throats, while Kam stuffed her own mouth with a little more class. The blonde leader took some time to reflect on his growing shinobi system; out of seventeen genin teams fourteen had passed and the other twelve genin were in the reserve genin list until the next graduation; they would have to pass the time doing refresher courses until then. He had black ops or DARK shinobi hidden around Wave that served as those that protected from the shadows while the police protected in sight. The DARK performed high ranking missions from time to time and the group was still growing, the Star were not too welcoming on being bossed around but they still recognized Daku as the undisputed DARK commander and Mole as his deputy. Just last week he had been sent a message by Temari through her summons that Gaara had been kidnapped by some unknown people. He had sent out Daku and some Hoshi jounin to go and lend their assistance; they had met up with some Konoha ninja on their way to Suna and had severely crippled Diedara the mad bomber and Sasori of the red sands. From the reports he had been given on their return they wore red clouds on a black cloak, the same cloak Kisame and Itachi wore when they tried to kidnap him as well, then another message came to him from Waterfall through his communication seal that similarly dressed people, two Kakuzu clones, had been spotted and dispelled by his seal defence. Naruto put two and two together and surmised that these cloak wearing people were after jinchuriki, for reasons he couldn't guess. He warned the new Mizukage through a letter since he didn't want to be in the same room as her, about what he had discovered and she had assured him that their jinchuriki were well protected. He had tried to warn Iwa but the village took his message as an insult, saying that he had threatened to kidnap their jinchuriki. Naruto fully expected an attack from Iwagakure any time soon, probably with this cloak wearing organisation since he was the direct and indirect reason they hadn't captured one yet, as far as he knew. He had passively told the Kumo delegation that had visited a while back about his thoughts and he knew they would take the news back with them to their village.

The genin teams had already started doing E and D rank missions to fill up their mission quota but his team hadn't started because he wanted to cement team work into their heads, maybe in a week they would be ready. The main reason he had time to take on a team in the first place was that some of his workload was shared with the ever energetic Daku, while Frog read through the less important ones. With his loyal dark shadow around most of the time he didn't require that many shadow clones to stay in his seat while he looked over his team's training. He wouldn't be present for the lower ranked missions, he would send Frog to represent him, but for most missions outside the village he would be there until they turn chunin which he predicted was when they would be able to properly look after themselves. As far as he knew Kam was the more experienced than the two ten year old boys since she already had three years prior of being in the academy in Hoshigakure, the team sensei used this to the fullest by making Kam the sort of leader in his place while Noriko was the trapping expert seeing as he was learning seals, while Inari was the muscle with his suicidal fighting techniques.

He smiled at Noriko; he had been helping the boy lay a foundation for his own seal work; he was still a level one but it was steady progress for someone that had discovered the art just a few months ago. He would summon the boy to his office well into the night, with his other team mates present, and give the boy lessons on how to draw seals quickly and reasons some basic strokes were paired with other basic strokes. This would help him in the long run since it made Noriko realized how much of fuinjutsu there was still to be discovered, the blonde seal master slowed him down by telling him that even though there was a lot more to seals that met the eye it was still a subtle but incredibly dangerous art, more so than taijutsu and ninjutsu; and that he would have been even more crippled if he weren't an Uzumaki jinchuriki.

Next he smiled at Kamlyn; the Hoshi clan heiress had been taking night lessons with the rest of her team with him in his office on how to make proper use of her wind chakra in a fight than just blowing around uncontrollable gusts of wind. He wouldn't teach any of them ninjutsu unless they requested and they knew that, so Kam had asked him to teach her 'Wind release: Wind vacuum' which was an A rank wind technique he had gotten from the Shimura clan library in ROOT, now found in the academy section of the library. Unlike her clan she was more open minded on working with Wave born and she eagerly took to learning with her Wave born team mates like a fish to water. Naruto helped her with her wind chakra control, alongside her father, the Hoshi clan head. Most of the time the girl just needed a little nudge in the right direction.

Last he smiled at Inari; the fish loving boy had made small improvement in his form since he had left the academy as the dead last. He planned for the boy to become a master at espionage and infiltration since he was one of the lasts to be caught in any tracking drill and the fact that he had the best Henge among his team mates. The boy was able to get a good grasp of who a person was and how he thought he sounded by reading the file that contained general information on the person. Inari had the smallest well of chakra, a disgraceful amount in all honesty but this turned out to be a major blessing; it gave him low jounin level control and he was able to super suppress his chakra without one of Naruto's seals. Naruto had him run drills to increase his capacity and his control before he would give him jutsu. In their night lessons in his office Inari was forced to do gruelling exercises in a separate room just so he wouldn't stink up his office; this was to increase his chakra levels.

All in all they were coming along nicely. Inari and Noriko were open minded to have a Hoshi member, an heiress at that, they were initially wary but a month and a week of being a team shut down the doubts. Kam was equally sceptical on having team members that weren't up to her skill level but Naruto had showed her that this wasn't necessarily a bad thing; each member had an individual strength that was amplified when they fought together as seen when Noriko used her as a willing spring board to land a punch, he didn't succeed but it was a good try. Added to the night lessons was that he showed them ways to perform first aid without medical chakra, but for Inari he had made it aware that he could learn medical ninjutsu; he assured the boy that he didn't need to be a medic ninja to learn the art but it would technically make him the teams medic.

After the dinner he sent them home for a break, so they would return at ten in the night, escorted in the shadows by DARK ninja. When he had set them all to their tasks he bent down and got to his work as Wave leader seeing as he had sent Frog home early on a week break and Daku was attending to issues that concerned the DARK commander. Naruto sifted through some documents in a hunched position and when he saw that there weren't any to be worried about he began to write out something he had in mind for a very long time.

He had been planning on making the title of Wave leader a clan title for the Uzumaki, specifically level nine and above seal masters. This was if he was ever willing to begin a family but he was still far too young to think about that. The reason for this was so that after observing that there was a Kazekage clan and how effective it was in administering he saw the merits. The Uzumaki were the closest in line to the first leader, Naruto, so this would have to make them loyal to Wave, like the jinchuriki in any other village. If Noriko really wanted to become the Wave leader he would have to impress Naruto enough in his fuinjutsu, ninjutsu and taijutsu knowledge before he can be bestowed with the title of honourable Uzumaki. His clan wouldn't be above anyone else, since honorary Uzumaki titles can be given to worthy people, but this was to zero in where to look before a leader can be chosen. Naruto had read through about every Uzumaki in history from the first ever Uzukage to Kushina and all were devoted to their work, whether taijutsu, kenjutsu or fuinjutsu, if the fact that every notable Uzumaki had created at least one new jutsu was an indication, him included.

Naruto looked up when he heard the door creak open and sighed lightly when he saw that it was Temari; the Kazekage's daughter had been in his country since the time he had left Konoha, visiting sand on joint missions with Wave ninja. The girl was adamant on something he still couldn't grasp. The blonde konouchi slipped in and sent a small wave to Naruto, he nodded back and she looked at his very focused students; Inari was in another room doing some pull ups the last time she saw him while doing the wave chakra control exercise that was tied horizontally to his legs and back, a gruelling task but he didn't particularly raise any objection to it. The battle fan user hesitantly walked up to him and smiled, he returned the favour a bit,

"I brought you something to eat," she whipped out a small scroll from behind her and unsealed some ramen from inside, she beamed at him proudly, "I made it myself,"

He looked down at the noodles and gulped nervously at the colour; it wasn't supposed to be violet or smell like burning tyres, "why…thank you Temari," he swallowed thickly,

Temari lilted on her heels nervously, "well what are you waiting for? Dig in!"

His students looked over when they heard her exclamation and watched as he slowly swished his chop sticks in the broth, ramen wasn't supposed to bubble like that, _;you better heal me Kurama,'_

" _ **I'll try my best kit, I'll try my best,"**_ Kyuubi sent a mental hand on Naruto's shoulder for support and winced when the boy took some noodles into his mouth. Naruto felt his eyes begin to water after this, a small, quiet sob escaped his mouth but he covered it up and kept on swallowing until he cut the noodles. Naruto sniffled and wiped the tears in his eyes with his wrist,

"This is great," he said shakily, he could feel his stomach roaring against his statement but he silenced it with a strong pat,

She looked at him suspiciously when his students began giggling into their hands, "You're not lying, are you?"

Naruto actually thought this through before he opened his mouth, "you just need a _little_ more practice," his stomach gurgled angrily and he patted it again,

He could visibly see the happiness seep out of her very being and she looked away sharply, not wanting him to see her shaky frown, "Oh,"

" _ **Say something kit!"**_ Kyuubi could see the impeding danger of a girl in tears and he knew as a fact that both he and his holder **could not** handle crying girls, Kushina and Yakumo were testaments to this fact. A memory of Kushina forcefully entering the mindscape just to punch him hit him like a train and he whimpered,

"I'm sure Noriko can show you a few things, won't you Noriko," the black haired boy nodded frantically from the glare Naruto sent him, "see? He can even be your taste test _, won't you Noriko_ ," the boy gulped from the glare he was sent but still shakily nodded, " _ **in fact the three of them can taste test for you**_ ," he glared at all three and they hastily nodded,

"You don't have to do that Naruto-sama," she quietly said,

"No, it's _seriously_ no problem," he stood up to ruffle her hair and hurriedly walked to the door so he could hurl out the toxic ramen he had just eaten,

"Ok!" she said after him, she skipped out of the office not too long later,

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"How are you feeling Kimimaro-kun?" Orochimaru asked as he used a stethoscope to keep track of the bone release user's heartbeat,

"I feel…great, Orochimaru-sama," the teen was sitting on a hospital style bed in the snake Sannin's lab. His shirt was off to reveal the small holes on his collar and his pale, crystalline skin; there was an ominous looking patch of skin that was spreading over his right arm but didn't enter his torso. The skin was flaky white, a different kind of pale, and it had two red circles on his bicep that glowed slightly. He flexed the arm and actually smiled, "thank you Orochimaru-sama,"

The older man waved it off and handed a phial with light brown contents for the boy to swallow and he did so without hesitating, there was no visible effect but Kimimaro felt the muscles in his new arm tighten. It was a huge feat for Orochimaru to chop off his arm and another to be quick enough to graft some new flesh on the growing limb. The snake Sannin had taken the Hashirama DNA from Danzo and had forced the cells to multiply through a variety of hard experiments, he had combined the cells with the developing Uchiha cells from the dead ninja with the dormant Uchiha genes, the firsts cells mixed with the Uchiha cells but couldn't replicate the sharingan in Kimimaro, though it did provide the bone release user with a regenerative ability that rivalled even him. the Hashirama cells provided Kimimaro limited control of trees, he theorized this was because the boy was incredibly sick and before the cells were put in place, so the wood release cells focused on keeping the bearer alive than giving him the famed wood release.

That was enough for him.

Orochimaru smiled widely when he saw the boy test out his bone release by having strong bones shoot out of his shoulders and his ribs; Kimimaro was even stronger than before.

"Watch out…Naruto-kun,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _Three days later_

 _Wave country,_

Naruto felt alarm bells ringing in his head as he relaxed in his living room, a wide spacious room in the leader's tower. It was the weekend and a time he gave his students, and himself, a break from training as well as a small break from being in the office, though sadly he was still scheduled to return in an hour. Just that morning he had met with the Hoshi clan head, without Kam in the room, and had informed him of his daughter's major improvements in her team. The man was at least pleased to hear that she wasn't making a fool out of herself, Naruto didn't particularly care what the man thought; he was just there to tell him his daughter was an exceptional shinobi. Next he met Tsunami and Tazuna, Inari's mother and grandfather respectively, and had also reassured them that their ward was growing up well. Since Noriko didn't have any parents or next of kin Naruto sat down with the boy and brushed up on his handwriting for ten minutes.

He groaned and sat up from his extra comfy arm chair, right next to the window where he could look over the whole of Wave; he had just sat down after showing Noriko some quick strokes and now his alarm seals were blaring on his arm. He rubbed his eyes tiredly and absently nodded when a DARK Hoshi ninja flickered to his side, wearing a dog mask.

"Where is the breach, dog?" he stood up and stretched his whole body, focusing on his 'dead' leg while the male ninja watched on,

"the alarm seals have detected an unknown flying object to the west, twenty six miles away or so; just outside the barrier range but inside the detection range," the ninja said, still on his knees,

The level nine and a half seal master pursed his lips to the side at that and whipped out a pair of clear, blue rimmed glasses, not the sunglasses he used when he had invaded ROOT headquarters. He used his wrist sleeve to clean the glasses and slipped them on; he walked up to the window and looked out, rubbing the sides of his glasses lightly. The glasses shone a light blue at the rectangular edges as they recognized Naruto, zooming in on where the ninja had said there was a breach. He cursed when he saw red clouds on black cloaks on none other than the mad bomber himself and the desert scorpion.

"Get every civilian and genin to the underground bunkers, no exceptions," he darted to the door and the ninja flickered away swiftly. Naruto tapped the side of his glasses and Mole dropped down beside him, walking with him with a slight bow, "we are going to be under attack any moment,"

"Hai Naruto-sama, we have caught sight of Hoshigaki Kisame, Uchiha Itachi, Kakuzu of Waterfall, Hidan of Hot spring village and Rai of Kumo to the far west,"

"I can only guess who they're after," Mole nodded, "I want every available ninja above genin to get ready to defend the bunkers, with Kisame's sword, Samehada, he can easily take down our defences." He helped up a girl who had fallen down as she rushed past, noticing she was from the Hoshi clan by the symbol on her big shirt, he waved and a DARK ninja leaped down, taking the scared girl with him to find her parents. The civilians parted way for their village leader as he and the deputy DARK commander walked through, bowing and hurrying past to where they were to stay.

He sensed Daku before he even blinked into sight beside him, "Uchiha Itachi has sent a message," he handed a small scroll to Naruto and after he looked over it with his glasses he opened it, a short message, **Hand yourself over and no one gets hurt. Think wisely, Naruto.** Naruto crumpled the paper and put it in his pocket,

"I want Zabuza, Haku, Mole and you to fight the ones on the ground to the west," he winced when Diedara dropped a huge bomb directly over the leaders tower but the electrical field protecting wave caught and detonated it miles above them, "I'll handle those in the sky. I trust you all have the death sharingan seal," Zabuza and Haku ran up to him and walked beside him. The four of the six inner circle members nodded when he said this,

"I'll have Kisame, we have a score to settle," Zabuza grunted as he cracked his knuckles,

"Daku, you have Rai; only you can match her speed,"

"Hai Naruto-sama,"

They walked up to the gate and the demon brothers bowed politely, they all stared far out to where the lightning field was holding off Kakuzu and Hidan, Kisame was yelling something at them and motioning to his sword but the mad, and electrocuted, jashinist was adamant to use his three knifed scythe to cut through the barrier.

Naruto unsealed his seal board and dropped it; the board hovered in place under him.

"Don't hold back, you all know that right?"

"Hai Naruto-sama!" they all said as one,

"Look alive, Kisame is using his sword on the barrier," he stepped onto his board and zoomed off into the sky to face Diedara and Sasori. While Daku and the rest raced off to meet the other Akatsuki members.

Tobi and Zetsu observed from the shadows.

 **Authors note**

 **That's it, I guess. Watch out for the next chapter, I smell fight scenes.**

 **Don't forget to drop a review please,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	18. Chapter 18

**Yo!**

 **Thank you for all of your wicked awesome reviews, they are very much appreciated. I feel all good now XD**

 **My school has started another semester and so my updates would be few and far in between. If by some chance I do update its cuz I'm super bored and there are no assignments or upcoming tests to be worried about, or any studying I have to do. Just in case I don't update for like a month after this or after my next chapter it means I am super busy being a student. Wish me luck!**

 **To all you Kurama fans, myself included, he hasn't really spoken or appeared as much as you or I wanted because there is so much going on that it's hard to fit him in.**

 **To '777torn777': yeah, I know! Shit hasn't even hit the fan yet. We still have…y'know what? Read to find out :P**

 **To 'VtrCst': as always your reviews help make my day a little better, thank you for that. And I fully agree with you, the situation did get bat shit. Stay awesome bud :)**

 **There are going to be multiple, abrupt change of scenes. I separated them as best as I could but it's just a warning, be prepared.**

 **ANOTHER WARNING, THERE WILL BE Hidan LEVEL SWEARS HERE. It's just a small part but… it's not for the faint of heart so do not get offended, I almost let myself loose on this one. XD**

CHAPTER 18

Most that watched Daku completely reduce all of his weight seals would say it was like witnessing the calm before the storm; the soil around Daku lifted up, then it began to swirl around him, first calm and slow, and then it whirred around his legs like a tornado.

Rai chuckled at something Itachi mumbled, so she was barely able to brace for impact as Daku shoulder tackled her, making it look like she had disappeared in a small crackle of lightning.

"Where the fuck did she go?! Did she fucking run out on us?! That pussy licking, dick sucking-" Kakuzu slapped the back of Hidan's head, "what the hell was that for, you heathen ass worshipper!"

"She's busy, idiot," the other Akatsuki members were forced to separate as more of Naruto's inner circle members came after them,

 _With Rai and Daku_

The lightning user grit her teeth and began dealing out lightning coated punches to Daku's back; from the speed they were going both of their feet weren't touching the ground and they were carving down the trees they touched, leaving a path of destruction in their wake. The dark shadow grunted with each blow and Rai huffed as her back continued meeting and breaking through trees and rocks. Until she charged up her massive gauntlet fists covered blow and brought it down in an axe blow on her fast adversaries back. This succeeded in stopping him but as she stumbled back to catch her breathe Daku stood up again and went after her. They engaged in a blazingly fast nin-taijutsu fight; Rai, with lightning in her eyes and fire in Daku's, caught a fist in her iron grasp but had to release it as a knee went for her stomach, she spun quickly on her metal boots but Daku countered with his own raised leg. Blow for blow, kick for kick, they matched up with each other, going faster and faster but neither showed signs of slowing down anytime soon. Arcs of lightning coated her body as Rai roared and blood red fire ignited around Daku, their blows kept on meeting and being countered and those were being blocked.

Rai correctly anticipated a snap kick and swept Daku's legs from under him, the fire coated shadow creation flipped but a lightning coated gauntlet slammed into his chest as he got to his feet. He careened across the grove in the ground but regained his footing in time to dash back and smash forearms with Rai.

"You are much faster than I thought, Daku-san," the white frizzy haired woman said, glaring at her fire coated opponent,

"Or is it that you are slower than before, Rai-san,"

"It will take a lot more than that to get to me," she bent under a right hook to her neck, smashed her fists together and lightning exploded around her. Daku hopped backwards away from the tendrils as they touched just before his feet. The dark shadow flipped through a dew hand seals,

" _Fire release: Mystical dragon fire,"_ he took in a deep breathe and blew out a storm of fire from out of his turban covered mouth, the chakra creature roared after her. The woman flipped away from the inferno twice but the third time Daku exploded from the mouth of the dragon and smashed his fist against her unprotected chest burning her Akatsuki cloak until it got to her under shirt and iron mesh armour protected chest. The blow flashed her far across the clearing and Daku diligently went after her. The woman smirked, impressed at his plan and twirled to her feet, spinning over the dark shadow narrowly as his fiery punch flew under her, barely grazing her frizzy hair. She landed on her hands and spun with her legs open, creating a vortex of lightening that moved to Daku. The quick moving attack washed over the dark creation and spat him out through the top.

The tornado of crackling energy flickered to a stop to reveal the confidently standing woman; she frowned when Daku flipped upright before he smashed into the ground. As one they began flowing through a set of hand seals, yelling out their attacks simultaneously,

" _Fire release: Mystic fire dragon!"_

" _Lightning release: Mystic lightning dragon!"_

Their elemental dragons warped out of them and roared to each other.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Itachi stared at Mole stoically, she stared back at his chin, "What shall I call you, konouchi-san?" Itachi droned, Kisame had been separated from him by a knee kick from Zabuza, the demon of the mist ran after his fellow swordsman,

"My master calls me Mole,"

"Nice name," he said in a rare show of sarcasm,

"It comes with the reputation," she replied immediately,

"And that is?"

She lifted her mole mask off her face slowly and dropped it to the ground, she then removed her Wave forehead protector from her kunai pouch and she slowly tied it around her eyes, unsheathing her tanto from her left thigh, "I can fight without my eyes," she took her signature stance; crouched on the ground like a tiger but her tanto was held in a reverse grip in her right hand,

"Brave words. Do you really know who I am?" Itachi took a loose Uchiha taijutsu stance,

She clenched her weapon tightly and responded, "The real question is," the small hairs on the back of her neck stood on end, ready to warn her, "Do you know who _I_ am?"

She launched forward like a missile and Itachi hopped aside, bringing his leg down for a quick axe kick to her neck to end the fight but she used the flat side of her weapon to block the strong attack and wrapped her legs around his leg, scampering over his body and bringing his head back to meet the ground. The Itachi exploded into chakra smoke; her neck hair twitched to the left and she slide out of the way from another Itachi shadow clone that exploded out of the ground, still in her strong tiger-like stance. She donkey kicked the clone's chest and felt a rough kick meet her side; she skidded on the ground and rolled away from a fist that struck the ground.

Mole held up the _ram_ hand seal and slashed in the general direction of three Itachi clones, her ribs throbbing from the effort, and a sharp water blade shot out and zipped to them. The clones flipped over the strike and Mole jumped to meet them, she threw a fist to a sharingan bearing clone but it was dodged, she used the momentum to smash her heel against the clone's forehead, dispelling it. The black ops member landed on the ground and stabbed the ground before another clone could ambush her, dispelling it. Her palm felt the ground and she sent out a short, fast pulse throughout, smirking invisibly when she got what she was looking for. The last clone ran at her and she ran as well, a fist went to her chin but she leaned away in time for the blow to just swing above her head and she darted forward, away from the clone. Mole then shoulder tackled a tree and Itachi blurred to life, his sharingan eyes wide in shock.

The S rank jounin kneed her stomach and drove an elbow into her neck but she crumbled into water after the blow. Ominous mist covered them and Itachi actually cursed quietly. He caught sight of the female DARK ninja perched on the tree above him as the mist covered them from sight. The fight between Zabuza and Kisame was getting more and more hectic, it seemed.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Get me out of this you, heathen fuck!" Hidan yelled as ice slowly crept up his torso, freezing him in place. Haku used his toe to poke the tri-pronged scythe on the ground, dropped as soon as he had cast a freezing jutsu on the Jashin priest. The man roared out his outrage and wiggled his neck around to give him some breathing room but the ice was now far up his chin, "Jashin-sama will punish you all! When I get out of this I am going to slaughter you all and use you for sacfici-" the ice covered his mouth,

"Neat trick kid," Kakuzu said with his arms crossed; Haku literally took out half of the zombie brothers with a single attack, _'an ice release user, haven't beaten one of those guys before. I heard that they were extinct,'_

"Thank you," Haku said politely, he adjusted his hunter ninja mask as Hidan completely froze over, his mouth wide open in a maniacal laugh. The demon brothers took a stance behind the ice release user with their barbed chain connected between them, still unused so far,

"What do you three hope to do against me? I am above your calibre,"

"To protect Naruto-sama," Haku replied as an ice spike formed on his palm and a light mist covered them, not enough to completely block Kakuzu from sight but enough to make both parties wary; Haku was Zabuza's apprentice, a well-known fact, and the demon brothers were the swordsman's allies, so they were well versed in fighting with limited visibility. Kakuzu loosened his crossed arms a little.

The mist thickened and the man took a loose stance, straining his ears to hear the quietest of whistles. He squinted and slowly looked around, moving in a tight circle. Just then he hopped back away from a barrage of ice senbon that rained out of the mist, he flipped through a set of hand seals, _"Wind release: Great break through,"_ he blew out a massive gust of wind from his mouth and the mist cleared…

Only to reveal that he was trapped in a dome of ice with hundreds of Haku and demon brothers looking down at him.

"Shit," he cursed and threw off his Akatsuki robe just as the ice senbon rain and poisoned kunai began raining down on him.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto swerved to the right away from a flock of exploding clay birds, "you want a taste of my art un? Eat it!" Diedara yelled from his flapping clay dragon as he forced more clay into his hand mouths and spat out more birds. Naruto grit his teeth and rolled in a tight circle as a tail clanged against his iron bubble. He had managed to lead the duo far away from Wave but still within the alarm barrier, which mean that they were fighting above water.

He spun around on his seal board and opened his left palm toward the exploding birds, flicking through four one hand seals, _"Whirlpool style: Final world seal,"_ a white vortex of wind warped out of a large seal in the centre of his palm and ate the incoming birds, "You like bombs? Eat it!" he threw his left hand to the flying duo and fire paper bombs flew out, _"unseal,"_ the clay bombs mixed with the paper bombs, cutting Diedara's control away from him. The mad bomber grinned at the attack and cackled as the attack flew down to him,

"Get us out of the way," Sasori grunted from inside his Hiruko armour, Diedara complied and commanded his dragon to fly as fast as it could, away from the mutated bird bombs, "hurry," the Suna missing ninja said this eerily calmly,

"It's going as fast as it can, Sasori-dana," the bombs stubbornly followed no matter how many times he manoeuvred the dragon, until Sasori got tired of this and leaped at Naruto.

The blonde seal master blankly looked at the puppet armour as it ran up the hordes of exploding birds, the birds blowing up a little after contact but far away enough for Sasori to not be affected too much. The older man threw his tail at Naruto and the boy raised his rectangular armour to defend against this, he cut of connection from his bombs but before this he tied all of the wires connected to the paper-clay birds to each together and pushed them to Diedara. The mad bomber looked back in surprise at what his superior had done so he was met with the full brunt of a combination of attacks.

As Hiruko began plummeting to the water Naruto dived after it on his board, the puppet armour opened its mouth and began fired poison senbon after senbon at the seal master but the boy moved out of the way and thrust his palm down at Sasori, _"Wind release: Gale palm,"_ the wind attack smashed against the puppet armour and the man hit the water heavily, much faster than he was initially falling. Naruto hovered over the splash zone, keeping his guard up so he wouldn't be ambushed by Diedara if he had managed to survive the explosion. He back flipped off his seal board as a puppet shot out of the water and smashed through the seal board with sharp, black sand, destroying it. Naruto landed on the water smoothly, not rippling the surface in the slightest, "so the reports were right, you do have the third Kazekage,"

Sasori rose from the water and stood on it as well, "Hai, he is one of my proudest creations,"

Naruto remained calm and quiet for a minute, staring at the iron sand user, "can I assume you have more human puppets,"

"Hundreds,"

Naruto tapped the side of his glasses and a full chakra frame of the Kazekage as well as Sasori appeared came to him clearly, he noticed that there was a central place Sasori was getting his own chakra, feeding it into the iron sand using puppet, not the usual eight points. He leaped backwards as iron sand erupted from out of the water in front of him, two shadow clones exploded into life beside him in bursts of chakra.

"Don't forget about me, un!" Diedara yelled as he too landed on the water from the sky, his Akatsuki robes were seared from the torso but his combat clothes was relatively unharmed. The iron sand puppet surged forward as the bomber fed his mouth palms with clay from his pouches,

The three Naruto's ran forward fearlessly and as iron sand covered one the other leaped high into the air and yelled, _"Water release: Great water typhoon,"_

Iron sand protectively covered both of them as harsh water smashed down on them, destabilizing the water and throwing Diedara's concentration off,

"Keep it steady, will ya," he grunted as he began crafting something massive from his clay, the iron sand rose into the air and opened up till it was a sort of platform for Sasori and his partner to stand on. The real Naruto, on the surface of the water was busy dodging and clanging his shield against iron sand being spewed from the Kazekage's mouth.

Sharp spikes kept on shooting after Naruto as he ran full tilt toward the man, four more clones burst to life beside him as he was hit with the memory of the clone fighting Sasori and Diedara being expelled. Two clones increased the flow of chakra to their legs and they rocketed high into the air and landed on the flying black iron platform, distracting the bomber from forming whatever he was forming, though it was already beginning to take shape. An idea came to Naruto, he ran under a sharp metal attack that would have cut his head off and charged up his chakra beam seal, as he skidded on his knees he skimmed his fingers into the water, muttering, _"Water release: Chakra beam,"_ water latched onto his biceps and he opened his palms. Directly under the iron sand puppet a sharp drill erupted from the water and rocketed after it, the attack bent and moved away from metal sand, reforming immediately after it had been cut in half until the puppet covered his whole body with iron sand, "got you," Naruto mumbled and charged up a seal on his pinkie finger, and a piece of paper passed through the attacking water beam that still hadn't dented the defence. The paper stuck onto the side of the armour and as soon as this happened a hazy blue bubble formed around the puppet; it plummeted from the sky.

Naruto hadn't been idle when he had received reports on the duos abilities; he had gone to his personal library in the leader's tower when he found the time to and started forming seals on ways to counter a puppet master. The seal he had used was to cut connection away from the puppet master, creating a blue bubble of his own chakra to cover the puppet. The Kazekage puppet was now completely out of Sasori's control; it splashed into the water and sunk to the very bottom, Naruto's hazy blue seal still covering it. Naruto had used a level ten containment steel and fortified it by adding a barrier seal, to create a division from the puppet master, and a broken up version of a blood seal. The feeling for Sasori was like trying to find a signal underground and having limited if not outright failure doing so.

He felt his clones being dispelled and watched as the floating iron sand began falling around him, Diedara and Sasori landed on the water, "strange that I lost control of my puppet," he observed that Naruto had water coated on his arm, his palm open in the ready, "how I wish I could kill you," he threw off his robe to reveal his bare torso as well as the cylindrical section in his chest that had the kanji for 'heart'. He raised his palms up and jets of water shot out to Naruto. The boy ran lengthwise away from the attacks,

"I've got you, un!" Naruto grunted as a giant bird with prominent forehead and three horns smashed against his rectangular shield. More flooded after his airborne body and Naruto actually struggled to dodge the unusual flying clay bombs; they looked like massive eagles but without feathers, with bull horns and a rectangular like forehead. A small blue dome covered Naruto's legs as he bounced over one, the water on his arm still connected to the sea, and threw out his free left hand to a clay beast; shards of exploding paper detonated it and Naruto was caught in the blast range. The water that trailed after him fell back into the water limply.

There was silence all around as they saw a figure fall from the blast zone. Sasori lifted off the water with his fan like wings and flew to catch the jinchuriki. He forced the tubes that shot out water back into the holes as he caught Naruto, but his eyes widened slowly.

 _Kaboom!_

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Zabuza and Kisame flew through the mist and smashed their weapons against each other, leaping away and running back again. Kisame and his former comrade entered into a fast paced kenjutsu fight, and they were momentarily destabilized by a ground shaking explosion. The shark man smirked at Zabuza and the other grinned and, as one, they both Spartan kicked each other away. Seeing Kakuzu face off against Haku and the demon brothers from the corner of their eyes,

Haku flipped over a fire jutsu from a fire mask and used the heavy mist around him to summon a rain of ice senbon, doing so without speaking. The attack flew to the mask but the earth mask came in time to erect a mud wall. The ice release user twirled a pike of ice in his fingers and ran to the dome, meanwhile the demon brothers made optimum use of their admirable team work to tag team against Kakuzu, who was without any masks. Black strings erupted from the ground to stab a brother but a brother drew a kunai and spun it by its ring, channelling water chakra into it so the tendrils shredded on contact. The other brother hefted up his half of the barbed chain and yelled, _"Sick poison darts!"_ the barbs shot out and honed to the maskless shinobi, forcing him to withdraw his black tendrils in favour of dodging. He cursed when he felt his water mask die; he ran to where he sensed the death and the demon brothers followed after.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Itachi hissed and held his hand up to his left eye, using a kunai to fight against his surprisingly capable female opponent. The woman was mercilessly hacking and stabbing him, defying his expectations of a quick win. When his eyes spun again to try and predict her next move he hissed, feeling like his eyeballs had just been dropped into pots of oil. Mole had already activated Naruto's _still_ highly experimental death sharingan seal, but was met with limited success; Itachi was not able to spin his pinwheel eyes in his sockets to predict, copy or put her under a sharingan based genjutsu. If Itachi tried to spin his sharingan he would be subjected to pain primarily targeted to his eyes, this was after a black ink-spider like construct had latched onto his neck and refused to let go. The deputy commander wasn't unharmed; she had scorch marks on her exposed arm and her left trouser leg from the knee had been cut off. She had a long, thin, bloody cut from the bottom of her covered right eye, over her cheek and to her chin. She spun on her heels and Itachi ducked the blow, jamming his kunai into her thigh. She grunted and flipped away numerously from him, the Uchiha went through a sequence of hand seals, _"Fire release: Great fireball,"_ she tore the weapon out of her leg and as she scampered under the attack. As she charged back to Itachi she threw her tanto and just as he caught the weapon in his hands she threw her palm out directly in front of him, a seal flared to life,

" _Unseal,"_ Frog shot out of the seal and nailed the Uchiha on his cheek with a ground shaking punch. Both black ops members disappeared into the mist after their opponent.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Daku used his forearms to catch Rai's shin but was subsequently electrocuted. The fire around him flared even higher and was visibly fighting against her lightning. She took her leg back and both nailed each other with right hooks. They flipped sideways and zipped back to each other tirelessly, just as Zabuza and Kisame flew past them and back into the darkness of the mist. Daku slipped under a rough left hook and nailed her chin with a savage upper cut, the blow lifted her off the ground but as she landed on her feet the lightning increased. Her robe melted off her body to reveal her usual combat uniform; a short sleeved reinforced white shirt, long sleeved mesh armour under shirt, tight white shinobi pants. Her metal silver metal gauntlet gloves and boots were still in place and glinting in the limited sunlight that passed through the mist. Rai and Daku began charging up their bodies; the lightning coating her body now merged with her skin and her very body turned into lightning, while the fire around Daku merged with him and turned him into fire incarnate. The fighters roared and flashed to each other.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Sasori's broken puppet body began to reform while Naruto was busy jumping from deformed clay bird to deformed clay bird with a blue bubble coated on his feet, closing in on Diedara. The blonde boy flickered to the mad bomber and both engaged in a short hand to hand fight, Naruto looked over his shoulder and saw that the birds were returning to their summoner. He held down a savage upper cut with his left hand and drove a knee into the older blonde's chest. In Diedara's shock at how his blow was caught and having the wind driven out of him he felt Naruto slap his back; silver snake ropes exploded out of his sleeves and tied the gasping man up, sucking out whatever chakra he had and making him sink into the water like a stone. Naruto didn't care about Diedara's fate; after his last action his iron bubble protected his back from a particularly angry blast of fire. He clenched his teeth as he struggled to stay in place but Sasori wasn't done,

" _Red secret technique: Performance of a hundred puppets!"_ the Suna missing ninja yelled as hundreds of flying red cloaked puppets surrounded Naruto. The boy took his signature armadillo fighting stance, his right hand stretched to Sasori, his left hand grabbing his right elbow and his legs in a ready stance. The water connected to his right arm slithered back into the chakra beam seal and a four and a half foot long sword made completely out of water came out. It wasn't intricately made but there was a distinct looking lizard at the hilt. The blonde boy bent into a basic kenjutsu stance, the sword pointing down with both of his hands holding the hilt, "give up child, I have used this technique to subdue a country. What hope do you have against it?"

Naruto was panting, his eyes were fixed on his main opponent but his senses were also aware of the flying puppets around him, "I have surpassed all expectations anyone had for me. I have been told that I am weak, that I would _never_ be a _ninja_ ," his limp blonde hair covered his eyes as he continued, "I have gone through hell for everything I have gotten, and no one," he growled, " _ **is going to undermine me. Ever. Again**_ ,"

"So be it," Sasori didn't care anymore, Naruto was going to die.

And with those last words the red cloaked puppets rained down on blonde the seal master.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Frog grabbed Mole's out stretched hand as Itachi used an earth jutsu to open up a chasm; the deputy black ops ninja was pulled out from harm's way and summarily thrown to the desperate Uchiha. Both of his eyes were heavily bleeding from the intense pain he was constantly subjected to whenever he tried to use his sharingan. The man was heaving in deep breathes until Mole smashed her knee into the middle of his head and he crumbled to the ground, too tired to stand up anymore. The woman quickly slapped a restrain seal on him and silver ropes wrapped around Itachi, the man merely closed his eyes and succumbed to the darkness, pain of having his chakra leave him forcefully. The duo could feel the air thicken, a sign that Haku was about to use his chakra high seal,

Kakuzu snap kicked Haku's shoulder, slammed his follow up elbow against his head and had to slide back as the demon brothers, very much worse for wear, dropped beside him. The fight zone was a disaster, broken masks and twitching black threads littered around them. The trio had destroyed the man's entire elemental mask collection but they were still up against an enraged S rank ninja. Kakuzu spat out some black threads from his mouth and they zipped to a woozy Haku, but a demon brother pulled him out of the way in time.

"Don't you think it's time to use it," the man grunted to Haku,

"Hai, it is," the boy hunched his shoulders over as he held the _monkey_ hand seal, the air around him thickened and a ghostly image appeared behind him from the mist. It was like what one would think the Shinigami looked, with the horrific looking mask and everything, but the phantom solidified slowly, ice cracked and creaked around it until it physically manifested. Meanwhile the Haku smiled serenely, standing in front of the ice monster that towered three times higher than him. It carried a short bladed knife in its right hand and its left hand, or its left pointer finger, was on Haku's shoulder. The mask's mouth creaked open and ice snakes shot out to Kakuzu. The S rank ninja had been summoning black threads out of every opening in his body in anticipation.

The snakes leaped at Kakuzu and on contact the threads turned to ice, he broke the threads off and ran to Haku. The ice release user smiled wider, at peace with the world around him, and thrust his right palm to his opponent. And more ice snakes formed out of the very mist around the man, he was forced to keep breaking off his threads as more and more snakes froze it over. Worst part was that every time he struck the snakes he would feel his body freezing over, he flipped through a set of hand seals, _"Fire release: Drilling fire bullets,"_ the attack shattered the incoming snakes on contact but with each one down more came from the mist. In his distraction he didn't see the phantom ice monster behind Haku stretch forward with his short knife and stabbed it down at Kakuzu. The ninja looked up in time and grabbed the edge of the knife before it reached him, he growled as ice slowly crept down his arms and solidified around him. Haku commanded the hand to pull back a bit and he cleanly cleaved the man's head off with the short knife.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto was in a blonde frenzy. He hacked, slashed, cut, sliced, diced and destroyed the puppets that moved down to him. He spun around in a tight circle with his blade outstretched and the water reacted to this by spiking up and forming a sharp dome. He roared and pushed the dome away, throwing many puppets away with it. He sprinted full tilt to Sasori and jammed his sword through a puppet that had wanted to ambush him from the water, he pulled his weapon out and hopped over two short scythe carrying puppets, he yelled and brought his weapon down on them. Instinctively he raised his left forearm for his rectangular shield to catch a mallet to his head, he summoned up as much strength into his sword hand and used his right fist to punch the inside of his shield. Violent vibrations rocked through the attacking puppet and it exploded into shards of wood and metal, he puffed out some air from his nose and he punched his shield again, more harsh vibrations reverberated through a hoard of incoming puppets, stunning them enough for him to make a slashing motion toward them; a wave of water washed over them and forced them under the water, the pressure crushed them.

The boy panted and looked around until an idea came to him, he pointed his water blade to Sasori and it shot out of his palm, the puppet master deflected his blade with a blade that came out of his puppet arm. Naruto though was busy flashing through his some hand seals, _"Ninja art: fuinjutsu: Sea of paper chaos,"_ both of his arms flew out and hundreds of thousands of paper fluttered out, revolving around him before they expanded and hovered in the air, frozen in time.

Sasori looked on curiously at what the boy was about to do; he still had about fifty of his puppets left and he was still at full strength. Naruto kept his arms outstretched and his palms open, his fingers twitched and the smoke issue ninja wire forced the paper to expand around them and cover Sasori as well. The man looked around and was about to hop out of the papers range but his back met with a hazy blue force field; he quickly substituted himself with a puppet when he felt foreign chakra enter his wooden body.

Naruto dropped his arms and his chakra beam seal flickered, lightning surged out of it and he pointed it at the puppet master, "you're in my world, Sasori-san," the paper seals hummed with energy at what he said and the chakra strings connecting to the puppets wavered and went off. The puppets plopped into the water around them. The situation suddenly turned dire for Sasori, he unsealed two more puppets from his arm and sent them over to Naruto. The boy ran to them as well and whipped his lightning coated arm at them, a lightning whip lashed at the duo and control left Sasori once again, the blonde kept on running to the older man but stopped halfway and jammed his arm into the water.

The S rank puppet master lost control of his limbs when arcs and tendrils of lightning smashed him into the hazy seal wall behind him. Naruto flickered in front of him and jammed his now water coated arm through the heart seal, Sasori's eyes widened slowly in realization of what had just happened. Naruto made sure to stare straight into the shocked man's eyes calmly. The tense air around them calmed down and the seals remained in the air, the red head painfully slumped onto Naruto's arm, slowly and whispered, "I have some information that will greatly benefit you," he muttered, "Orochimaru has created a shinobi with the sole purpose to destroy _you_ ," his voice was getting quieter, "my source says there is going to be another attack on Wave…with Iwa…in a year…" he was barely even heard anymore, "for what it's worth…good luck…Naruto…-sama…"

The Wave leader nodded in acknowledgement, knowing that the s rank puppet master had admitted him as his better. He pulled his arm out of the dead puppet masters heart and allowed the man to sink into the water, Sasori smiled peacefully at him, despite his wooden face, as he sank in his watery grave, death was imminent. Naruto closed his eyes and looked up, taking a deep breathe and letting it out slowly. He had just defeated _two_ S rank missing ninja. Then his mind went to what the last man he had killed said; Orochimaru still held a grudge on him for assisting his team mates in forcing him to flee. Naruto didn't know why it was him in particular that the snake Sannin was targeting and not his _Sannin_ team mates, but he would be ready for him.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Naruto-sensei!" Naruto looked to where his name had been called and smiled when he saw that it was Yakumo. Hinata and Sasuke were running behind her; news of the invasion had reached Konoha and the other villages allied to Wave late. The brown haired girl ran up to his side and looked him over with critical eyes but he waved her concerns away, "I'm fine," they watched as DARK ninja carted an enraged Hidan in a tight container that didn't even allow him to move his neck, a frustrated baboon masked ninja even stuffed Hidan's mouth with a rag, tired of hearing all the creative curses the priest was spewing out. Itachi followed after in chakra cage that was very similar to Hidan's, then Diedara's unconscious body was carried in on a stretcher with restraint seals dotted all over, lastly Sasori's dead puppet body and Kakuzu's headless body (and his head) was carried on a stretcher as well. He had already sealed up all of Sasori's puppets and was planning on giving it to the Kazekage's brother, Kankuro, the only puppet master he was familiar with. But Kisame and Rai were nowhere to be found, though they were carting Zabuza in on a stretcher; worse for wear but he still had a huge grin stretched on his bandage covered mouth, Naruto smirked at that.

"Sorry we couldn't get here on time, sensei," Hinata mumbled,

"There's nothing to be sorry about," he walked to where the barrier seals in outer Wave were located, near the main gate, and observed it. He nodded to himself when he saw that it was now fully back online,

"Hiya Gaki," jiriaya exclaimed but Tsunade smashed her fist on the man's head, "I-I mean Naruto-sama," he rubbed his sore head and pouted,

"How's it going Naruto, you look like shit," the blonde woman said with a smirk, Naruto returned the smirk slowly and looked over his body. His blue jounin flak jacket had jagged slashes and soot all over it, his sleeves had been torn off by something he couldn't even remember, he was missing half of his left sandal, part of his hair was black with soot, there was a purple bruise on his cheek from something else he couldn't even bother to remember, the only fully intact thing was his black ninja pants.

"Why thank you, Tsunade. You look particularly _old_ today," he responded sarcastically and Mole leaped down to his side and whispered something into his ear, he shook his head and whispered back, she saluted and flickered away.

"I'll get you back, Naruto," she grinned, she furrowed her eyebrows as Naruto was handed a clip board by a chunin Hoshi gate keeper, "something wrong?" the citizens that were in the bunker were now creeping out and returning back to their everyday lives,

He hummed and bit the end of his pen, "Kisame and Rai escaped, _very_ injured might I add, but my alarm seals detected two more hidden watchers. There is no description but I can guess what they were wearing. Now I'm thinking of putting that cursing idiot under a deep, irreversible stasis and executing Itachi Uchiha. What do you think?"

"Yeah…about Itachi…we need to talk," she whispered this to Naruto so Sasuke wouldn't hear, but as far as they knew Sasuke was busy watching his older brother being carted away in a seal cage like a criminal. Naruto looked at him for a minute before he clasped his hand on the black haired boys shoulder,

"Why don't you guys go and wait in my office, I'm sure Tsunami-san will serve some cinnamon rolls," Hinata unconsciously licked her lips and silently dragged the boy and the younger girl with her to the leaders tower, "now, what do you want to tell me about Uchiha Itachi…?"

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 _ **Ninja art: Sea of paper chaos**_ _ **: this is Naruto's alteration of Kushina's custom made jutsu**_ _ **'child of paper chaos'**_ _ **. He had changed the jutsu specifically if he was to fight Sasori one on one. It works by spreading paper seals similar to the one he put on the Kazekage around him, held up by extra thin smoke issue ninja wire that were held together by his chakra, and cover Sasori so it would be him and Naruto in the ball. The seals create a sort of static chakra energy that would destabilize the puppet masters chakra control, this was the reason he couldn't hold up his remaining puppets to fight for too long any more, or if he can they wouldn't be too effective against Naruto, as seen with the final two puppets. If anyone besides Naruto is to step within the field his/her chakra control would be shot to hell and there would be a constant buzzing in his/her head. The limit to this jutsu is range (not more than half a mile from Naruto), density of the targets chakra, physical strength of the victim and Naruto's current strength to hold up his 'world'. If the target is to touch the barrier set up then the users chakra would begin to take over the person's body; low powered substitutions cannot work to escape. This jutsu is classified as S rank because it would take a lot of training to effectively use this.**_

 _ **Whirlpool style: Final world seal-unseal**_ _ **: is an A rank Fuin-ninjutsu that was created by the Nidaime Uzukage's younger brother, Chiko Uzumaki. This jutsu takes a storage seal and maximises it so much so that it would be able to suck in anything thrown at the user despite the speed, size or velocity of the projectile and spit it back out as a personal attack. Only one with high chakra capacity and expertise in fuinjutsu is able to do this because the chakra requirement to seal up anything going fast or that is incredibly heavy is very high. The jutsu cannot seal living people, tailed beast balls or tailed beasts. This jutsu though needs thirty minutes to recharge despite the users chakra levels, so it is best used wisely.**_

 **So? What do you all think?**

 **Mole and Frog won against Itachi without their chakra high seals because they are a good tag team and that they made use of Naruto's still highly experimental death sharingan seal. The seal didn't destroy Itachi's sharingan but it locked the pin wheels in place, preventing him from copying jutsu, predicting attacks, casting sharingan based genjutsu as well as put him in tremendous amounts of pain. Mole wore him down in the beginning with her unique sensory abilities (she is a sort of touch/contact sensor, which means she can sense people but only when she touches the ground, like Tobirama and Minato, but she can make use of the ground or wind change, as seen when her neck hair stood up at the ready) so Itachi couldn't hide in a genjutsu while sending clones at her. She summoned Frog to surprise, which it did. Did I surprise you guys? I sure hope so.**

 **I didn't write a detailed fight between Zabuza and Kisame because I just didn't want to, though from the fleeting appearances the two made you would get the intensity of the fight. I don't think I need to explain how or why Hidan was taken out so fast, death can't hold him down but ice very well can, especially the extremely hard kind of ice. Plus that guy is too reckless for his own good, he would charge in with his scythe, confident that any injury wouldn't kill him but Haku would just freeze him in his tracks because he** _ **knows**_ **Hidan can't be killed, why bother trying? Naruto seems to be growing too, he has more jutsu under his belt and he has even modified one of his signature jutsu (child of paper chaos) into 'sea of paper chaos'. He would of course know about Sasori and Diedara and for sure he would have to prepare seals to beat them, plus he was the only person that could fly and fight them in their own game. It all comes down to who is best prepared for who.**

 **It seems a conspiracy about Orochimaru has come to light and with Iwa allying with Sound for the attack. Then** _ **Pein**_ **…**

 **Yeah, well…**

 **Shit's about to go down. Hope you stick around to read about it. Don't forget to drop a review please,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	19. Chapter 19

**Thanks for you wicked awesome reviews. Things are just starting to get busy over here but I'm managing. Updates may slow down for a while, not sure when but pretty soon. Thanks all the same for staying and reading this story, I appreciate all of you very much. Every single one of you.**

 **Another chapter up, hope you all like it. Please drop a review after this chapter.**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 19

Deidera's eyes cracked open and he groaned, trying to reach for his head to rub at the throbbing pain but he couldn't move. He struggled a bit but then realized that there was no light in the room whatsoever, and the fact that he couldn't move at all. The blonde tried to open the mouths on his palms but for some strange reason they weren't responding, much like his whole body. It felt like he was made out of wood. From the little awareness he got, seeing as the film over his eyes weren't out yet, he found that he was standing on a slanted table, strapped down by his wrists, ankles, thighs, stomach, chest and neck.

' _How am I even alive?'_ he asked himself, he vividly remembered looking, horrified, under the other blonde as he sank into the water, like a log. He remembered struggling for breathe, feeling the harsh burning from lack of oxygen spread from his chest like a flower and the air bubbles he was spitting out as he screamed. He shook off the memories and opened his mouth, "hello!" after this he heard a thick iron door being unlocked and opened; he hissed from the thick beam of light that hit him, his eyes dilating before he managed to close them, he hesitantly opened them again but found out that he was again plunged back into hellish darkness. There was a distinct boot sound coming toward him, he put on his brave face and prepared a snarl for whoever it was; if he was going to die, then he would die with his pride. The person reached up and pulled a string, a sharp beam of light fell on Deidera's blonde head; he tilted his head down, away from the light.

This person coughed into his hand and tapped his pen onto his clipboard, holding a few sheets of paper in place. The only distinguishable feature was the man's short half white, half black hair with a Wave forehead protector holding it all together and a pair of wire rimmed reflective glasses; the rest of what he had on was inky black, merging with the darkness behind him like he was a floating head and tan, sleeveless arms.

"Bear with me, this is a formality," was the first thing the person said, he cleared his throat and said, "You may call me Woshiwoshi, or Woshi, for short. What is your name?"

"Like hell you don't know," the mad bomber spat, still straining for his hand mouths to move, but again they were unresponsive,

"I see," Woshi scribbled something down on his clipboard, "how old are you?"

"Fuck off," he bared his teeth in defiance, taking a leaf from Hidan's book,

The man hummed and jotted it down, "and from where?"

"Go suck a dick,"

Woshi chuckled and wrote it down, "all right let's start all over again," he gently dropped his clipboard somewhere in the darkness beside him and cracked his knuckles, "I have been told to get every drop of information out of you, whether I have to take it from you willingly or not. Will you cooperate?"

"Again, go suck a dick," the mad bomber smirked and relaxed on his slanted table, still unable to move,

Woshi laughed quietly and lifted a piece of paper before Diedara, a small seal was draw in it, "you see this seal? It's a creation from leader-sama called the truth seal. Whoever it touches would forever be cursed to tell the truth until the he or I remove it," he said all of this boredly, he waved the seal in front of the captive man's face, making Deidera flinch away slightly; he could only guess who 'leader-sama' was and it wasn't Pein, "you've made me angry, so I _won't_ be using this on you…yet," he slipped it back into his flak jacket, hidden by the darkness around him. He cracked his neck loudly and looked over the slanted table Deidera was tied to at the one way glass far behind the blondes line of sight, before he looked back at the bomber, "let us begin,"

He grabbed Deidera's face in his hands, making sure to cover his eyes, and harshly punched his stomach, not stopping until he had the blonde wheezing. He removed his hand and was forced to dodge a glob of spit from the mad bomber. Woshi shook his head in exasperation and reached into the darkness, bringing out a classic potato sack and covering the prisoners head. He continued dealing out his stomach punches, when he noticed the victims head was lolling to his chest he lifted up the sack a bit and stuck two smelling salt containers, small enough, into to his nose and continued punching the poor blonde. Woshi smirked slowly and dumped a bucket of ice cold water on Deidera's head after a solid ten minutes of non-stop punching.

Diedara sputtered and coughed, a small trickle of blood fell from his mouth and he shivered, he was dry heaving. A right hook across his face had him hurl up some mucus and blood from his mouth, he was gasping for air and another punch to his face, this time the other cheek, had tears well up in his eyes. He clenched them shut; refusing to cry in front of anyone, but the next punch, a fist covered with a metal duster met his cheek. His pained pants echoed around the room and the worst part was that Woshi hadn't asked his questions yet.

Diedara limply tried to lift his head and spit out some blood at his interrogator, but he couldn't in time for another iron punch to smash into his stomach. He whimpered quietly, tears dripping from his eyes, some mucus from his nose and blood cascading down his mouth to his neck like a waterfall. Another punch met his sore belly and he tried to hunch over but his neck restraint as well as the seal restraints on the table prevented him from doing that. Woshi noticed that he was trying to bite off his tongue so he would forever keep whatever secrets he had and summarily picked a pair of tongs from the darkness and held it in place on the bloody blondes tongue, he then clamped down a bit and savoured in the little sob Deidera gave, he let go. Deidera shook his head, trying to get his closing eyes to see clearly again, his head lolled from one side to the other and he grunted when he heard fingers snap in front of him, vaguely noticing that the smelling salts in his nose weren't as effective as they initially were. His bleary eyes looked at the wide, toothy grin Woshi now wore, "are you ready to talk _now_?" he nodded; one way or the other information would be gotten out of him, through a seal or by him and after that he expected a painful death. The blonde's eyes snapped open in a burst of energy and before he could bite off his tongue a seal was slapped onto his forehead, the kanji for truth glowed softly, "I like my meat tough, and you my friend are tough. First question…what is your name?"

The Iwa bomber clamped his mouth shut with all his might but it still flew open, "Deidera," he said it clearly and smoothly, defying the state he was in presently; his eyes were closing shut and there were purple bruises on his cheeks and his chin.

"Now was that so hard?"

"…Yes,"

Behind the blonde victim was a one way glass where the six village leaders allied to each other stood. Samsato scratched the back of his head and chuckled, "they don't make them like they used to anymore, huh?"

Tu chuckled to herself, "he certainly is brutal. I'll give him that,"

Naruto shrugged and smirked, "Woshi-san prefers his victims to be polite," he winced when he witnessed yet another punch across of Deidera's face even though the blonde was telling the truth to whatever the Hoshi ninja was saying, "he seems to have some pent up anger issues,"

"Ya think?" all winced again from a gut punch, then another, Yumi composed herself again and turned to the leader nearest to her age and coincidentally the youngers, Naruto, "what do you need the Iwa missing ninja for?"

"I need all I can get; a group of S rank ninja cannot be without a leader. This leader that sent all of their ninja just to capture me must have some sort of grudge against me." Seeing as Wave had been interfering with most of the Akatsuki's dealings and delaying their goal it was understandable. Add in the fact that Naruto alone was the most protected jinchuriki they had ever encountered; making every plan they made to kidnap him moot. Naruto could only imagine this 'leaders' frustration.

The blonde seal master couldn't interrogate Itachi for all he needed because Tsunade had explained to him that the Uchiha was a spy in the Akatsuki ranks. He would have to report to her before he could report to Naruto. The Senju had taken the Uchiha back to Konoha two days ago and he was still awaiting a report. For now they would have to make do with Deidera, mainly because Hidan couldn't say a sentence without adding a curse word or nine in. Any blow would only serve to enrage Woshi even more because the jashinist absolutely loved the pain, it seemed. Now with the ominous warning of a shinobi created just to destroy him by the Sannin hovering over his head and the fact that Iwagakure may only be attacking his village because he was the Yondaime's son, thinking that the minor villages he was allied to weren't strong enough to match up to Hidden rock and Hidden Sound, Naruto's gut feeling was getting worse. A year was an awfully long time to train somebody; it was either Orochimaru really wanted to take his time or Sasori's spy had given an overestimation. The blonde Wave leader would have to go for the latter.

As the interrogation dragged on longer than an hour the leaders began to leave, saying that they had urgent issues to meet up with. Naruto understood their situation; they had their villages to lead as well but at the same time they didn't want to leave and make him think they were only with him for his security prowess. He politely nodded as well and allowed them to go back and attend to their village matters, when they left he called the Hoshi ninja that had been questioning Deidera and told him to write a detailed report and drop it in his office the following morning.

There were a system of tunnels and hallways under the leaders tower, so complicated was it that if you weren't with a guard or you weren't Naruto you would have died trying to find your way out of the maze. Small, soft glowing, white bulbs of light were attached to the wall, providing enough light to the blonde for him to walk to another section of underground rooms. He stopped at the same room he had first brought in Rat, Mole and Frog; now there were no tables, juts an empty room with dull yellow paint on the walls. He quietly closed the door there and sealed it off from outsiders before he sat down in the middle of the room in a meditative position and put his palms together.

Unlike what most believed, jiriaya included, Naruto did _not_ have full control of his Kyuubi chakra; he could only control up to six of the tailed beast tails before he lost his mind and succumbed to the insanity that was often patented with the fox beast, which quite frankly was different than the racoon beasts madness because it was believed that the Kitsune were born with a sort of controlled madness, while the Tanuki were mad from bad experiences, possibly from torture. Even though his tailed beast containment seal was a work of genius by his father; it allowed his own chakra to flow with Kyuubi's, mixing it together and making it denser and more volatile by the month, it still took an active effort on the part of both jinchuriki and beast to control the strength. All were aware of the fact that Naruto and Kurama were in perfect unity, a tag team that could only be compared to that of the eight tails and his jinchuriki, but the main thing that was slowing down the boy's development when it came to controlling Kyuubi's pure chakra and not the mixture of his and Kurama's was age. Naruto was ever growing, ever developing; he had already stopped getting taller but now it was his very bones and muscles that were getting stronger and tighter. Most wouldn't notice it at first because he remained as leanly muscled as he was when he began his taijutsu training but very soon his forearms alone would be able to break through _trees_ , without their protectors on. Kurama had predicted that Naruto would gain full control of his chakra when he was sixteen.

Naruto, of course, had altered his tailed beast containment seal. He had connected the seal directly with his chakra beam seal, making it able to either mix with his own chakra or at least one of his affinities. The other thing he did was to connect Kurama with Daku, with limited success; the dark shadow could only get Kyuubi's chakra if he was within a mile of Naruto or else Daku's seal would burn and destroy the dark shadow, leaving Naruto to reform his loyal servant out of scratch. He had created an added assurance that he would be able to control his and Kurama's chakra. The last thing Naruto did was create a store of chakra that his and Kyuubi's chakra would be leaking into, mixing together. Kurama was personally in charge of controlling the volatile combination of chakra seeing as he was the only one so far that had the most volatile chakra in history. The purpose of this chakra store was that if by some crazy chance Naruto had his chakra capacity drained he would have something even more powerful to fall back on. The purple chakra store was his back up chakra capacity; it worked like his chakra high seal but instead of making him more blissful it made him demonic in a sense. Any witnesses of him tapping into the seal in his containment room would testify that he would truly look like he was one with the fox and that he was very bloodthirsty. Naruto might have been a dream example of a jinchuriki, Kurama had said so himself, but he was still a thirteen year old boy that hadn't fully grasped the full power of the tailed beast in his stomach. That was why the child had converted the very room he was mediating from an interrogation room to a containment room where he would practice holding beast chakra in him. The seals in the four corners of the room would keep a close eye on his brainwaves and when they notice that he was far out of control wrought iron jinchuriki restraint chains would shoot out of the corners and hold him down before he got out of control. There were also suppression seals so no one would notice what he was doing and silencing seals in case he ever laughed too loudly. It was the same seal she place around his hidden training ground in Konoha whenever he was training Yakumo to use her beast chakra.

Naruto was garbed in his combat uniform except his forearm and shin protectors, which had been even more reinforced so they wouldn't get torn up like last time. There was silence and a little hazy red chakra began bubbling on his skin, fizzing up more and more until a single red tail shot out behind him, connected to his tail bone. His usual limp, dull blonde hair now swayed as if it was in the wind; another tail joined the first. The two tails were waving above him and making smooth motions around like they were sentient,

" _ **Yes, now hold it like that,"**_ Kyuubi grunted and from within his seal he observed a massive tree that was sitting in the centre of a sea of red chakra, Naruto had cut the flow of his own blue chakra and allowed the Kyuubi's to flow into the well of chakra. It worked like a damn of sorts; there were four exits and two openings, Naruto would first open the four exits so his chakra would pool out and gather somewhere else, leaving only a tiny drop before the Kyuubi chakra entered and dissolved that drop. It usually took thirty minutes of mediating to clear out Naruto's chakra. The tree was a seal construct that was not made of wood, but when one would look at it closely they would see various kanji moving up and down the bark and the branches. The branches were over hanging and dipped into the chakra around it, seeing as it was situated on an incredibly small island, while the roots rose a little from the ground but still plunged into the chakra. The tree was to carefully control the flow and speed either chakra moved out to Naruto, it had helped Naruto's chakra control for his own chakra immensely but he wasn't anywhere near perfect.

Two more tails added into the fray and when Kyuubi felt the trunk of the tree he noticed that it was heating up. Naruto was still in control though; his face was only scrunched up lightly from holding his tails still. When the sixth tail came the seal tree was set on fire. Kyuubi kept his hand on though and literally lend a helping hand. Now Naruto had protruding canines and a dot on his nose that was to symbolize a Kitsune's snout. More overhanging branches dipped into the water Kyuubi watched, interested, as it constantly sucked his chakra in and spat it out from the roots, creating a cycle. The storm that was his chakra let up a bit from the trees actions but only small waves splashed around and bubbled. A seventh tail sprouted from under Naruto,

" _ **Alright, that's enough!"**_ Kyuubi yelled and Naruto barely caught it, he forced four of his exit gates to open and sighed in relief when the demon chakra left him, relaxing even more when his own chakra filled up the well.

The blondes shoulders sagged as he sighed again; he never liked this training, but he had been assured by his tailed beast that it would get easier once he mastered it, like with his taijutsu.

" _ **Ready to go again?"**_ as Naruto nodded a swirling vortex opened up behind him and a single gloved hand reached in, grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and pulled him in. He disappeared like he wasn't there in the first place, just as his containment room sounded a silent alarm to Daku and Mole that their master had not left the room but at the same time he wasn't there.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Lord third do you think it's wise to wage war against Wave? That country is very well guarded _and_ well connected," the third Tsuchikage's son said quietly as he followed his short father through the villages ANBU training ground, acting as the older man's guard as well as supervising the training the ninja were going through in preparation for the Wave invasion.

"That little village is no match for my shinobi,"

"Wave is allied with Smoke, Fang, Marsh, Chill, Waterfall, Konoha, Suna and Kiri," the other man smartly pointed out, because quite frankly three villages weren't enough to defeat Iwagakure but _**eight**_? It was suicide and his old Kage father was still too blind to see it.

"Numbers do not mean anything to me. I have defeated battalions of Konoha shinobi without dropping a sweat,"

"So has the Yellow flash," the son whispered, making sure no one heard him; that moniker and the name of the bearer were a taboo in Hidden Rock, "and it is his son that leads Wave,"

"Just because they are related does not mean they are equals," Oonoki stopped and crossed his arms, watching over the intense training his black ops shinobi were undergoing.

"Yes but he has already made a name for himself as an S rank ninja and he is _thirteen_ ," he couldn't emphasize this enough. The little intel they had gather about the boy from his time in Konoha was that he had taken down the one tails, he had helped forced the snake Sannin to flee, he had created an S rank attack only he could use, he had led the charge in the Hoshigakure invasion. The boy had done so many things and his father was too stubborn to see that Naruto could as well have every possible counter for every possible attack; his village was basically impenetrable for crying out loud. His father kept quiet but spared him a seething glare,

"Do not tell me you are afraid of that little blonde maggot,"

"I will gladly die for Iwa but I'm am trying to tell you-"

"That is enough,"

"The Wave leader is just too-"

"I said enough!" his voice rang out over the training and everyone stopped to look at him; Oonoki waved his hand so they would continue with what they had been doing,

Yuwatsuchi stepped back in shock, but still kept talking, making sure to do so gently, "You cannot keep holding this grudge in your heart, Tou-sama. Long ago Iwa and Kumo destroyed Uzishio but Wave is on friendly terms with Kumo. Naruto offered an olive branch to you by informing you about this S rank organisations goals and you turned him away," Oonoki remained stubbornly silent and Yuwa sighed tiredly, "I have already forgiven his father. Why can't you?"

Here Oonoki whirled around on his feet and levitated so he was eye level with his tall son, "Minato took away the ones I love. He took away your mother, he took away your sister, he took away your wife," he said this intimidatingly under his breathe, snarling at Yuwa. Yuwa chose to keep his mouth shut and allowed the man to continue, "He took away millions of other families, he orphaned children, and he disgraced the name of Iwagakure."

Yuwa frowned sharply, "they were shinobi,"

"Regardless, I will not stop until every Namikaze is _**dead**_ ," Yuwa closed his eyes in defeat.

The Tsuchikage spun around and flew to his office, leaving Yuwa to stand alone. The man shook his head and walked out of the training ground and abruptly stopped in a busy market, he reached to his right, to a wall, and pulled out a brown haired girl wearing a chunin flak jacket. The girl nervously scratched the back of his head under his accusing eyes,

"How much did you hear, Kurotsuchi?"

She straightened up, "everything," she looked to where he grandfather had flown to, "why do you think he is so insistent?"

Yuwa slowly smiled at her, realizing that she did not entirely blame Naruto for her not having a mother. Not entirely but it was still progress; a year ago the mere mention of Naruto, whether as a ramen topping or not, would make her go into a wild tantrum of fiery destruction. The thing that had he sit down and think about her rage was when Naruto had not gone to war with Kumo or Iwa, rather she was hearing that they were having talks. That and she had been in the room when a letter had reached her Tsuchikage grandfather, telling him the S rank organisations main mission, the same S rank organisation that Iwa had been using to make shady dealings all over the elemental nations. Naruto had indirectly offered his assistance to them and the Tsuchikage had declared it as an insult to them. Iwa, like every other hidden village, had a history book and the Hidden rock too great pride in 'crushing Uzushiogakure'. Naruto's poor upbringing wasn't a secret anymore and she had asked herself what would have happened to him if Hidden Whirlpool wasn't destroyed. Naruto clearly didn't hold any grudge toward Lightning or Rock, or he would have declared war against both right off the bat. She would have said that it was what he deserved for what his father had done but Naruto was born many years _after_ the third shinobi war, a time Naruto wasn't even born. Plus the life of a shinobi was shaky and uncertain, that was what she had learnt in the academy, and Minato had only been performing his duty to Hidden Leaf, as appalling as it sounded. Minato took no pleasure in killing anyone, the Yondaime was reputed for only striking back when the aggressor was one going after what he strode to protect, just like Naruto when he had invaded Hoshigakure.

Learning more and more of Naruto Uzumakis life in Konoha was a humbling experience; the blonde boy had taken his sorrow and his loneliness and channelled it all into fuinjutsu. Most had said that he learnt seal work merely to find a place he could finally find peace and strive to preserve that peace for as long as possible, and he had found his peace in Wave. Her grandfather's anger on a person who wasn't even responsible for the massacre was almost unfounded. Naruto had all right to blame Iwa and Kumo for his sadness but he didn't. As young as Kurotsuchi was, sixteen years old, she knew when her village was outmatched, and a two on nine, possibly ten, battle wasn't going to be an easy or possible win.

All would have expected that it was the children to hold the death grudges and for the adults to convince them otherwise but this was clearly not the case.

Yuwa put his hand on his daughters shoulder and led her through the market to their home, "hate has taken over his heart. I only hope he doesn't let it reign,"

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Zetsu was as cunning as he was versatile. As the fight between Wave and Akatsuki raged on he used the chance made by Kisame when the defences had been down to slip into the village. He didn't wasn't any time creating white Zetsu clones to run around, out of sight, and collect whatever information about the village they could. They had been barred from the leader's office, the DARK headquarters and the S rank section of the library but everything else was free game. Black Zetsu had personally gone to the library to read up on anything of value, seeing as every civilian and shinobi below chunin were in the underground bunkers while a few DARK ninja, the jounin and chunin guarded the bunkers, the rest guarded the major buildings in Wave and watch the fights going on. This left a small hole in security for the plant creation to pass through. He had skimmed through an abridged history of Wave; the island country had been created from a monumental earth and water jutsu by an unknown Uzumaki missing ninja who had died on the same soil evading capture from his countrymen. The new island had been close enough to shore for people to notice it so Water country merchants and traders moved there in droves, making the place a nerve point for trading of any sort since the land was large enough for all. It had been officially named Wave country simply because it was close to the sea and waves usually washed near the shores. A few years later Gato came and discovered the natural resources under the ground, convincing the elders in charge of Wave for him to make there his permanent headquarters, but he had turned behind them and hired mercenaries to forcefully take charge of the island country. Wave didn't have any shinobi at the time; it was merely a peaceful trading point but violence and chaos came a week after Gato did. The fat man's reign had been a cruel one where children became orphans, plant life died, sea life faded away; people lived dirt poor even going as far as to contemplate _cannibalism_. Then a saviour came in the form of Daku. Though the dark shadows campaign had been a silent one there were speculations on how he won the fight. The history book said he ran head first into a million A rank ninja and defeated them; another part raised a rumour that Daku had literally fallen from the sky and had obliterated Gato's strong hold. The fact still remained that the people of Wave readily agreed to be under Daku's great master's rule. The great master ruled Wave well, first using the meagre supplies to build two medium sized boats where fish and rice could be transported out of Wave and sold in a neutral village, Hidden Waterfall or Hidden Darkness. Then Waterfall had approached Daku and had presented the idea for the four minor villages it was allied to fully ally with each other. That was when Naruto had revealed himself.

Most confused the tall boy for a person in his late teens and up till this point he still refrained from telling them his age. From the point where what was dubbed 'The Six Minor Village Alliance' was created in the Wave leader's office it had been a steady movement upwards.

Each more developed village in the alliance provided capable shinobi for Wave to perform missions and man the shinobi and part of the civilian system until it reached the point that Wave could take charge on its own. Relations between the six minor villages were still as strong as ever, if not stronger, so it didn't surprise anyone that two trains had been constructed for the primary reason of connecting the villages even more and moving their citizens and resources from one village to another. The railways started off in Marsh and moved through Fang then through some mountains to Chill on one side, on the other side solid stone and iron had been constructed over the sludge and swamps around Marsh to a hidden access point in Waterfall, then a complicated construction of a track that went over the water to Wave was made. Even still transportation on a boat was still favoured by some of the populace since that was what they were used to; train transportation was still highly used for those in a rush to move to another allied village.

Then mutual alliances had been formed first with Konohagakure, a trade and military alliance where aid would be given when aid was needed but this didn't give the major village full reign over any of the 'Minor Six', the same had been done with Sunagakure and Kiriagakure. The history books even raised rumours that the six village leaders were on friendly ties with Kumogakure. A possible mutual alliance in the future. It mentioned the minor six's conquest of Hoshigakure after an unnecessary act of aggression as well as the part successful addition of Hoshi clan into the shinobi and civilian system. The book also talked about the infrastructure, water, electrical, trading and military advancements in Wave but Zetsu didn't care about that.

The plant man went straight to the high A rank fuinjutsu section of the library and looked for anything that would help him slip through the seal borders of Wave. He couldn't find a replica of the seals tattooed inside the sentry posts at the gates in outer and inner Wave but he did find another thing of closer value. A barrier ninjutsu created by the Godaime Uzukage that had trapped his opponents in a force field where he was the focal point so no one could escape; he had used this seal when Uzushio had been invaded. That and he sealed all that remained in his self-barrier ninjutsu when he had finally been held down with the same seal Danzo had on his chest, the reverse four symbol sealing. Zetsu pocketed the 'Reverse self-barrier ninjutsu' and moved on to find whatever could give him an edge over the level nine and a half blonde seal master. He sensed that the fights were rounding up and very soon the barrier would be set back in place so he hastily copied three more barrier seals and left.

Zetsu went all the way back to Hidden Rain to report to Pein on all he had found and as expected the rinnegan holder was less than happy about it. The red haired man did collect the barrier ninjutsu and seals and memorized them; it took him two full days to learn the seal seeing as it wasn't complex but it was still fairly hard, his former sensei, jiriaya of the Sannin, had laid the foundations for fuinjutsu in his students. Nagato, Konan and their dead best friend, Yahiko, were all former students of the toad Sannin. It was war and death that had corrupted Nagato's heart. Though it had taken him half an hour to learn the ninjutsu.

Pein was presently sitting on his throne at the highest room in the Amekage tower; he was staring outside the wall sized window at all of the buildings in Ame. The rain fell down from the sky like kami was crying, mourning for all the village alone had gone through and all it was still going to go through. Nagato closed his purple rippled eyes and opened them again, slowly. His eyes were now hard with determination and behind him the six coffin-like protrusions from the ground all opened. Out walked his six paths of Pein and they mutely looked at each other, then at their summoner, Pein. The large chakra conducting pipes that were deep in the rinnegan holders back rose more than six feet in the air, they could feel the clear connection from Pein to the paths. Konan stood beside Pein and quietly walked to where her dead best friend's re-animated corpse stood, her expression was blank when she saw that Pein still hadn't turned to anyone; his eyes were fixed outside the window, staring at everything and nothing at all.

Pein rolled his neck and clenched his fingers, before he finally spoke to the other silent, but masked, member in the room, "bring him to me, Uchiha Madara," Obito nodded, knowing that the moment the 'god' entered into the playing field all the cards were out…well, not all the cards…not yet. From his lone sharingan eye the air swirled together and he dipped his arm into the kamui. He grabbed Naruto by his neck and yanked him back, throwing him on the ground face first in front of Nagato. Immediately after letting go of the boy the man held his head and hissed in pain, just realizing that Naruto may have had one of his chakra control destruction seals incorporated into his body; he felt his control fluctuate and the horrible buzzing in his head, distracting him from seeing anything for a while until he forced control back to him.

Naruto gave a pained groan as his face met the ground, just realizing that the chakra control destruction seal on him had been used up by his captor. He pushed himself to his feet and looked around; the room was a bit too dark and dreary for him to fully grasp who or what was in the room,

"Uzumaki Naruto," he turned his head when he heard his name, the oh so deep voiced persons face was hidden from sight by the back of his chair-or throne-but he did notice long black rods coming off the top. His hands twitched at the ready,

"Depends on who's asking," he responded, readying himself in case there was a fight,

"I am Lord Pein and you have been a thorn in my side for long enough," from the corner of the throne he could see the person grasping the arms of the chair strongly, "I will have your tailed beast, child, but I will rip it out of you last, you will watch all you have built _crumble_ , you will watch all you love _die_ and you will feel _**pain**_ ," Naruto looked around the dimly lit room with his sky blue eyes and his senses and his sensory seals informed him that there were eight people in the room; the person named 'Lord Pein', another person with slightly fluctuating chakra levels, a female and six more people with the same chakra signature as 'Pein'. The boy closed his right fist and subtly prepared it to fire off beams of energy at his captors, "you and your bothersome village may have beat my shinobi," Naruto swivelled around when he felt someone stand five feet in front of him, just outside his automatic defence range, the person that had done so was an orange haired man with purple rippled eyes; Kyuubi's eyes widened, "but you cannot beat a _**god**_ ," the orange haired man said this with the covered man called Pein. Naruto looked down sharply and realized that the man's palm was levelled with his chest,

" _ **Kit get down!"**_ Kurama yelled but it was too late,

" _Almighty push,"_

And with those words Naruto was blasted out of the office, through solid wood and iron, and into the rain off the six story building.

 **Authors note**

 **I hear death bells ringing…**

 **Watch out for the next chapter; don't forget to drop a review please,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	20. Chapter 20

**Oh wow, you guys are all awesome. Thank you for your reviews.**

 **Twentieth chapter! Woohoo! I honestly didn't expect to get this far. Thanks for sticking with this story everyone that favourite, followed and reviewed. You're all the best.**

 **I can honestly say that the fight between Naruto and Pein is going to be different from the one in canon, the fact that they aren't fighting in Konoha but in Pein's home turf, Ameagakure, should be the first sign.**

 **Shout out to Ezeakel for your idea with this chapter, it was greatly appreciated.**

 **I'm actually pretty hesitant to put this chapter up but…yeah…here goes…**

 **Let me not keep you guys waiting,**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 20

It was the heavy pattering rain that fell on Naruto that woke him up from his daze. He shook his head and first flexed his fingers, then wiggled his toes, then finally moved his neck to look at where he was. The first thing he caught was that there was a gaping hole through the roof and that was where he noticed the famous Ame rain was falling through, the next thing he realized was that he had literally crashed dinner.

The family dining table was divided into a clean half with him in the centre, thank goodness for the blue iron bubble that had caught him in time or he would have severely injured his spine. The family of seven, probably five civilians and two genin, if the fact that they had their kunai out in their shaky hands was any indication, were huddled in one corner of the room.

The blonde seal master huffed and sat up slowly, knowing that the only injury he was sporting was a sore chest where the strange attack had hit him. The family of seven were hiding behind the two scared genin, Naruto took a deep breathe and ran his fingers through his wet hair; he smiled slowly at them and motioned for them to calm down, but they of course didn't. He fully understood their situation; he was a foreign ninja that had literally dropped from the sky and plummeted through their dining table, interrupting dinner.

He rubbed his eyes and removed his glasses from a seal on his neck, fixing them in place and activating it; the rain stopped blurring his vision and he could see their chakra networks. He blinked twice and the chakra capacity (not chakra network) turned to heat vision, then back to normal. Naruto waved at them, "hello,"

The sheer tone he used when he said this, so cool and relaxing made the two generic looking genin slightly lower their weapons, but they hastily raised them back up, "State your business…Wave shinobi," one of the genin commanded, probably a male, after getting a good look at his forehead protector,

"That won't interest you," he waved that way and strapped on his forearm and shin protectors on, "you all need to calm down,"

"Calm down? You ruined dinner!" a girl yelled, the other genin,

Naruto raised a finger to retort but his sensory seals flared, he looked up quickly and cursed under his breathe, "Get down!"

"Why should we listen to you!?"

The blonde leader then threw both of his palms over his head, lying on his back, and a hazy blue bubble covered him, the bubble expanded and covered the whole house just as a four armed, two face person dropped down from out of the sky. The strange looking shinobi began dealing bone shattering blows to the iron bubble, "run! Now!" he clapped his hands and the bubble threw the attacker away, he flipped to his feet and a hazy bubble curved to life under his feet; when they hesitated to obey he groaned in frustration and leaped through the hole in the ceiling as a shadow clone burst to life under him and ran at the family. The clone made its own clones and hefted the genin and their family one their shoulders, disregarding the struggle they were making. The Naruto clones leaped out of the house just as it collapsed around their ears. The genin caught sight of the original blonde bouncing over the orange haired, four armed attacker and lashing at him with his silver ropes that crackled with energy.

The four armed Asura path frowned heavily and shot missiles at the bouncing blonde from his chest. Naruto ran lengthwise away from the explosions but had to front flip over a three headed dog. He furrowed his eyebrows in thought, _'I'm sure I've seen those eyes somewhere,'_

" _ **They're my Tou-san's eyes, kit"**_ Kurama grunted, standing on his hind legs and watching his holder dodge and flip over various attacks from two paths of Pein, though they didn't know that was their names.

' _Tou-san?'_ Naruto mumbled and leaped over a stretched arm from the Asura path, he landed on the limb and ran to the shocked path, surprised that the coating of chakra on his feet was protecting him from being electrocuted. When he got to the paths head he slapped his palms together and a ground shattering repulsive force blasted him and the path back. A half snake, half tiger chomped down on his air borne body but he exploded into chakra smoke, leaving a log for the creature to swallow; the real Naruto was crouching inside the destroyed residential house's rubble, he formed two more clones and they fearlessly ran at the orange haired duo.

" _ **I didn't just appear, you know, I was born or rather**_ _ **created**_ _ **,"**_

' _We'll talk about that later, what do you know about those eyes?'_

" _ **My Tou-san, the Sage of six paths, had those eyes. They are called the rinnegan. I didn't stay with him for too long but I got what they could mostly do. A major ability is controlling gravity, like that first guy; the Deva path. Another is that he could augment his body with mechanical parts, the second guy; the Asura path. Another is that he could summon immortal animals, any kind of animals, and sometimes even people like the third guy; the Animal path. Another can absorb chakra and make barriers, the Preta path. There's an ability the two tails once told me that he could read minds from touching people and literally take their souls from his opponents bodies, the Human path. The last I know of is that he can resurrect anyone, the Outer path. My brothers and sisters rumoured that he has another major ability, I think they called it the Naraka path; I'm not sure what it does but they say he can restore anyone back to full health or even back to life."**_

' _Ok, now I need to narrow them all down,'_ Naruto was forced to roll away from a stretched metal fist that smashed into his cover, his blue bubble shielded him from the debris and the seal master retaliated but absorbing the rain into his right hand, the chakra beam seal, and a tentacle made out of damaging water was formed, he channelled him his lightning affinity and thus what he would call his 'chakra shock whip' was formed. He lashed his arm at the four armed man and it was caught easily, he opened his right palm and a paper seal sped through the water and attached to the man's hand; wrought iron chains erupted from the seal and effectively held the man down. Naruto ran full tilt to his opponent but before he could cut off his head he was summarily thrown back from an invisible gravity attack. The blonde used his whip to catch the edge of a building and slow down his descent. Four more red haired opponents dropped down; Naruto could distinguish the one that could control gravity, the one that had augmented body parts, the one that could summon animals and now the fourth one grabbed his chains and sucked out the chakra that had created it, freeing his orange haired comrade. The last one should be Preta path.

Ideas and plans flitted through Naruto's head as he stared down the four paths. His electrical water whip at the ready, he held up a half _ram_ hand seal with his left hand, _"Multiple shadow clones,"_ dozens of clones burst into life beside him and ran to the four, as expected a gravitational attack repulsed them away but they were forced to leap away when a stubborn clone exploded from the ground and threw a windmill shuriken at the Animal path, the clone flipped through a few hand seals,

" _Shadow shuriken technique,"_ the single windmill shuriken turned into ten and whirred through the rain at them, the two headed dog intercepted the attack and the half snake, half tiger too burst from the ground and bit down on the clone, roaring to the sky when it turned into chakra smoke.

The boy felt a terrible force yank him forward and he was caught by the neck by the Deva path, "do not resist, defeat is inevitable,"

"Defeat? I don't know the meaning of that word," Naruto grit out and winced when the hand around his neck tightened, how was he even able to get passed his blue bubble?

"You are against a god, child. Nothing, not even your seals, will save you," the Preta path muttered from the deva paths side, he stalked forward to Naruto,

"I'm not so sure about that," Naruto snapped his fingers and his hazy blue iron shield repulsed the paths away yet again, not as strong as when he would slap his hands but strong enough. This time though the Deva paths whole arm tore off, so it remained tight around Naruto's neck. The blonde boy pulled the arm off with his water whip and that was when he noticed two more orange haired people dropping down from the leader's tower. A demonic head erupted from the ground after one of the new comers muttered a jutsu and a long tongue wrapped around the one armed Deva path and pulled him into its mouth.

' _That must be the Naraka path,'_

" _ **Hai, seems like something the rinnegan can do,"**_ the grisly sight of the kind of hell's head restoring the Deva path was very disturbing. Meanwhile the Asura and the Human path ran at him, while the Animal path summoned more and more strange animals to attack.

It was like watching a tsunami smash into a small rock; the animals and the orange haired shinobi washed over Naruto.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Daku closed his eyes and focused, trying to sense a tingle in his stomach seal so he could locate Naruto.

"Anything?" Mole asked nervously, her mole mask was perched up on her head so the occupants of Naruto's office; Frog, Mole, Zabuza, Haku, Rat and Daku could see how wide her soft brown eyes were. She was nervously clenching and unclenching her fists behind her back, away from their eyes, and she was at the same time trying to calm her heart down.

"Nothing, it's like Naruto's chakra control destruction seals are jamming our connection,"

"Do you think Naruto-sama would just leave on his own?" Haku asked, also having his Wave hunter ninja mask perched on his head. The ice release user frowned in thought as he asked this,

"Naruto-sama never leaves without informing me," Frog stated, and it was a fact; embarrassing enough Frog knew where Naruto was at any time, even if he was in the bathroom.

"What about the reverse summoning seal he has on us?" Mole asked, making sure to control the quiver in her voice so no one would notice, this was done successfully,

"It works for _us_ if the connection is strong, something is jamming my connection. So that leaves it if _he_ summons us," everyone there had a reverse summoning seal for each other that was connected through Naruto, the hub point, so he was what most would refer to as the connection line between his inner circle. It worked by thinking of the person they wanted to summon, hold out their hands at the desired location, the person being summoned would be alerted, Naruto would instinctively connect the two by a core reverse summoning seal between his shoulder blades when he felt a 'click', the seal was located under his blue iron bubble shield and thus the person being summoned would be fired or dropped out, depending on the summoners goal. The seal wasn't as complex as what anyone would think, it was inspired from the summoning seal Orochimaru had on his arm but the kanji were shifted and keyed to the members of the inner circle.

"Doesn't he want our help, I'm sure he's in trouble; he's a freaking danger magnet," Zabuza grunted from his seat across the room, he folded his fingers over his chest, and the kubikiri was leaned against the wall beside him,

"From what I know about Naruto-sama he only asks for help if he is against someone out of his fuinjutsu capabilities," like with Kisame Hoshigaki all those months ago, everyone filled in what Daku said,

Naruto was a very _independent_ person; he preferred using his own strength first until he was forced to ask for help. He wouldn't exactly be called proud, but he could be called highly independent, even when it came to asking Daku or Kyuubi for strength. With all his seals and jutsu knowledge it was pretty understandable; Naruto had seals to keep his feet solidly in the ground without much chakra, seals to help him jump higher than any chakra augmented limb could, a seal that would strengthen his arms so when he moved in for a punch it hurt a lot worse than it should, and many more seals and secrets he wasn't in any rush to reveal. The blonde Wave leader was very capable on his own.

"What do we do now, Daku-sama," Haku asked, the ice release user stood by the door with his arms crossed,

"Since we don't know how long he will be away we need to make sure no one knows he's gone. I'll Henge into him to keep up appearances," he then transformed into their blonde master easily, "then we have to be ready for anything," they all nodded and flitted out of the room. The dark shadow sat down in Naruto's desk and waved his hand, four DARK shinobi flickered before him on their knees, "this is a triple S rank secret, Baboon, Raven, Eagle, Leopard. If this gets out the punishment is death," the four black ops members gulped and nodded, making sure to keep their heads down. 'Naruto' then sifted through the mission requests on his desk and handed them an S rank mission, "do you accept?"

Raven read through the mission quickly and nodded his head curtly, "Hai Naruto-sama,"

"Dismissed," and they flickered out of the office. Naruto had handpicked the best of the best from his DARK shinobi force, the ones that were renowned for a particular field and merged them into a team, Mole as their captain while at the same time serving as the deputy DARK commander. Naruto had personally put them through the same trust test as Rat, Mole and Frog; telling them 'critical village information', leaving around huge sums of money, 'forgetting to close' important documents, and some other things. They had passed, making them the first notable Hoshi clan members to lose their restraint seals, the next being the Hoshi clan head and the Hoshi genin; it would take a few more months of being under observation before the rest could be freed from their unknown scrutiny.

'Naruto' walked to the big window in his office and looked outside at the developing country that was spread out around the leader's tower; he put his hands behind his back and stared at everything and nothing at all. The mission he had given the DARK team, Mole was participating, was that they should go and observe Hidden Sound, Orochimaru the snake Sannin's hidden village for an indefinite amount of time until they were called back. This was to scout of the borders for any holes or leaks, find out as much as they can about the relatively new hidden village without being detected. This mission was classified as S rank because of the high probability that Orochimaru would detect them; the older man was also a seal master but not one of Naruto's calibre.

Daku Naruto swivelled around to return back to the real Naruto's desk, he had work to do.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Naruto was really beginning to wonder if it was his Uzumaki heritage that was always bringing him trouble. First it had been Sound ninja trying to kidnap him during the Sand/Sound invasion, then Shukaku the one tailed racoon, then Kisame and Itachi, then Orochimaru, then Deidera and Sasori and now 'Lord Pein' the rinnegan holder. The challenges weren't exactly unwanted but they just kept on getting stronger and stronger, this lone thought made him wonder; who was stronger than a 'god'?

Naruto grunted as an iron muscled arm rammed his gut, and he was pushed in the way of a rampaging red bull. He mustered up some energy from his well of Uzumaki energy and gripped the creature's horns, righting himself on its back and slitting its throat with his electric water whip. He was sure he had killed the Animal and the Asura path more than five times but that pesky Naraka path kept on reviving them.

The thing that final got Naruto to snap was when he was harshly jerked backwards towards the Deva path with another 'Universal pull'.

The blonde seal master roared and flipped backwards in the air toward the path faster than the orange haired man could anticipate; Naruto's sandaled foot met his face and Naruto jammed his fist through the man's stomach with his whip, he leaped off as the Asura path ran to him but stopped when Naruto's body began to bubble. The boy grunted and his shoulders hunched over, panting under the effort of what he had done and how fast he had done it. That was when red demonic chakra began bubbling onto his skin, his drenched blonde hair rose into the air like a flame and his cool sky blue eyes dilated into a crimson red fox sclera. The water whip in his right hand fell apart and he clenched both of his hands, glaring at the six paths one after the other, before the Asura path took the initiative to run at him. Naruto hopped away numerous times away from the ground shattering blows and the missiles launched, and when he caught an opening he dragged his left foot back on the ground as he hopped away again; the path was summarily trapped in a seal trap. Blue light glowed around the iron augmented man as he struggled with all his might to tear out, Naruto sped full tilt towards him and two tails exploded into sight behind him, wrapping around the man tightly so he wasn't able to move his arms and allowing Naruto to leap onto his shoulders and slam his fist down on the centre of the orange man's head, destroying him again. This time Naruto held his left hand over the dead path and he was easily sealed into a storage seal on his pinkie finger.

The boy snarled bloody murder and his canines stretched halfway down his chin, the ground around him cracked under the monumental effort of holding him up as he crouched down like a tiger into the third stance for the Armadillo fighting style; both of his feet were together and his arms were at ready positions in front of him. Two more tails formed behind him and he shot forward, rolling on the ground like a bowling ball that was gradually gathering speed and debris, attaching to his back and his head. The paths scattered and Naruto followed after the Naraka path persistently; a tail lashed out to intercept a red bull and another jammed straight through its mouth and burned it with the demon chakra. He expelled more and more chakra out of his boy to burn through more animals that ran to protect the path, and tore a clean hole through a lizard like animal. He was halted in his tracks by a strong attractive force behind him; he jammed three tails into the ground to slow down but the Preta path landed on the red spinning ball of death and began sucking out the Kyuubi chakra. Naruto growled from inside the ball and slapped his palms together, the path was thrown off and the attractive force that was pulling him to the Deva path was cut off. Naruto bounced in his Armadillo ball after the Preta path just as the man formed a barrier to block him Naruto opened the balls mouth, looking like a nightmarishly toothy grin, and swallowed the path, barrier ball and all. The ball got bigger and signs of a fight were going on. Inside Naruto remained in his ball position as tendrils of demon chakra lashed at the barrier from behind him, he frowned when he saw that they weren't making dents so he went to his specialty; seals. He opened his arms and touched the walls of the ball from inside and paper flitted out of his sleeves and entered the walls; the tendrils shook and began spitting out paper seal after paper seal. Wrought iron chains wrapped around the barrier ball the Preta path was holding up with a lot of effort, sucking out whatever chakra he had. The path groaned under the effort of holding off hundreds of iron chains that were as thick as his hand and he finally caved under the pressure. He tried to suck out the demon chakra around him but Naruto took his chance and had the tendrils slice off his arms. The path was summarily sealed into his pinkie finger,

The ball of demonic chakra was now as tall as a two story residential when it stopped growing and the signs of struggle stopped. The dead Yahiko kept calm but his rinnegan eyes glared at the ball he put his palm near the surface and muttered, _"Almighty push,"_ the Animal path summoned a gorilla-horse combination that wielded a war hammer to smash its weapon down in the ball. The ball cracked under the strain and that was when tentacles of demon chakra flew out of the ball in all directions; it latched onto the strange creature and lopped off its head cleanly. The tentacles acted sentient; they carried the red ball around like a twisted octopus with six predominant tentacles that also served as tails. Inside the ball Naruto's whole body was on fire with Kyuubi chakra, he opened his right hand slowly, like a flower and moved it forward; a gaping hole formed in front of him so all could see him and he blasted a long beam of lightning and fire combination toward the Deva path, the attack created a thick grove through the ground after the path as it fled before a turtle landed behind it to protect it, but the lightning-fire combination was reputed for tearing through chakra absorbing trees, it didn't take too long to break through the shell and continue going after the path. The Deva path whirled around on his feet and formed a barrier, holding off the thick beam of fiery lightning until a seventh tail erupted from the ground and threw him back into the leader's tower.

The Kyuubi jinchuriki took a deep breathe to make sure that he was still in control. His spine tingling red sclera eyes looked around carefully for the remaining four paths and their leader. His seven Kyuubi tails waved in the air hypnotically and he grunted when a war hammer hit his protective demon chakra shell, his senses informed him that it was another gorilla-horse summons. He spun around and blasted a stream of lightning fire at the creature, dispelling it. He reached as far as his sensory seals could and a small smirk crawled to his face when he detected the remaining paths. He forcefully reduced the size of his demonic Armadillo shell until it was as tall as an average man, he slowly rolled around, occasionally killing summons that leaped out of nowhere until he was again pulled backwards, and he grunted in frustration and spun around in a tight circle to the Deva path. The path erected a shield around him and effectively held of the spinning attack, from the barrier he began sucking out demon chakra.

"You cannot win, child,"

"Just watch me," Naruto muttered from deep inside and moved his arms so they were in front of his chest, having to push his knees away a bit to do so, and began flipping through a medium length set of hand seals as he felt demon chakra being pulled out of him, _"Water and Earth release: Combination jutsu: Demon sludge dragon,"_ behind him the muddy ground opened up and a horned dragon roared out, leaping over Naruto and diving down to the path. The attack was easily drained of chakra but this had cost a small distraction, another dragon flew out of the crack in the ground to intercept a three headed dog with the Animal path on its head. The Dragon rammed its head against the dogs and drove it back, destabilizing the path and allowing Naruto to roll sideways after the path. The dog heads bit down on the neck and the dragon exploded into muck, blinding the animal long enough for Naruto to 'swallow' the path.

Naruto tackled the path as it flowed through a set of hand seals but he was pushed out of his shell by a red bull the path had summoned. The shell broke apart around him as he smashed into the side of a building, his red sclera eyes widened as he sensed life in the building. Dozens of clones burst into life around him and landed on the floor, running into the crumbling building while the real Naruto ran head first back into the fight, he ran to the side away from a green-purple python as thick as his whole body lashed at him and jumped high into the air with his palm levelled down at the Animal path, _Seven tails: Chakra beam,"_ a red beam warped put of his palm and converged into a single, sharp point that zipped down to its target, the path dove aside but the beam weaved through the ground like a tail after him…straight into the iron grasp of a shadow clone. The clone grinned at him with his elongated canines glinting intimidatingly and exploded into chakra smoke, wrought iron jinchuriki restraint seals encased the Animal path and forcefully siphoned whatever chakra it had. The path wiggled limply on the ground for help but the paths were too distracted avoiding worm-like chakra beam attack that was weaving through the ground.

The Deva path leaped in front of the Human path and _held_ onto the full brunt of the drilling attack, something not even Orochimaru would dare do. The paths eyes glowed ominously,

" _Universal pull,"_ Naruto was dragged to the man and a solid punch met his chest as the Deva said his next jutsu, _"Almighty push,"_ he was again thrown away, but not before a little surprise was left in the Deva paths fist.

The man's eyes widened and he tried to frantically shake off the explosive tags that were multiplying and spreading all over his arm and up to his face,

Naruto wheezed for air from the wall he was embedded in but a triumphant grin was plastered on his face, _"Boom,"_ he whispered and the explosion rocked the very foundations of Ameagakure. The civilians his clones had saved from the crumbling building watched in awe as the plume of smoke rose in the air. Naruto tiredly got out of the crater in the wall and fell to the ground, landing on his feet. He ran into the smoke, trusting his seal augmented glasses to make him see, and drove a knee into the Naraka paths chin before it could summon the king of hell to revive the dead path. An orb of wind formed in his right palm and he drove it through the stunned path, not expecting it to switch with the Human path. He quickly sealed up the mortally injured path. He looked down at where he had blown up the Deva path and frowned when he noticed his wrought iron seals on a pile of ash and body parts, "sneaky," he muttered and crossed his seven tails over him as he was blasted with another gravitational attack. He grabbed onto the ground and sealed the destroyed Animal path.

The fighters were carving a path of destruction through Ame and it seemed Pein didn't care if there were any casualties. Naruto's red sclera eyes widened when he saw his own chakra beam version attack being thrown back at him, he used his tails as a shield again but he was being pushed back very slowly, he flared his tree root seals to hold him in place. His tails curved under the attack and deflected it back at the thrower, who easily took the attack into his system. Deva went through a few set of hand seals _"Summoning jutsu: Konan,"_ and Naruto leaped away from the swarm of paper shuriken that was thrown at him from the summoned person, the purple haired woman. She ran at the younger jounin and both engaged in a fast paced taijutsu match, the woman making sure she didn't directly touch the demon chakra that was permeating from Naruto's skin. Thick paper coated her fists and she punched at him, Naruto leaned away sent a high kick to her shoulder but the woman erected a wall of paper between the attack and her. On contact the paper exploded, covering her and Naruto. The boy held up his forearm to her snap kick attack and flowed under a right hook, running his hands on the ground and trapping her in place. He savagely punched the back of her head four times, each blow breaking the ground after contact, not even able to move or slump over because the seal had frozen her in time. She was summarily knocking her out after the last blow, still standing on her feet but her eyes were closed and her breathing was even.

"I'm tired of this," Naruto muttered,

"So am I," Yahiko responded, "I shall end this, now," he raised both of his arms to the sky and the supply of chakra going into the Naraka path stopped, the path fell forward on his face like a tree, _"Chibuki Tenshi,"_ (my apologies, I don't know the English translation)

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"What the hell are you doing?! You're destroying your own home!" Naruto yelled as he leaped from flying rock to flying rock that met high in the sky into a growing satellite. The boy could already feel the beginnings of its pull so he threw a wired kunai down and it jammed into the ground, he pulled with everything he had in his body but the ground broke apart,

"They are merely witnessing what true power is," Yahiko responded as more and more rocks flew into the air, he ignored the horrified looks being sent at him by the civilians and shinobi of Ame that were too being lifted into the air. Naruto cursed under his breathe and hundreds of shadow clones burst into life away from him and bounced from rock to rock, catching the citizens and switching with rocks till they landed on the ground. A clone grabbed the unconscious Konan by the back of her cloak and dragged her back, away from two colliding rocks. The clone hurriedly tied the woman up with ninja wire and threw the kunai end to where the general populace of Ame stood, the weapon thunked in the ground and the purple haired woman flapped limply from the gravitational pull like a flag but without a metal pole to hold her up.

"All because he wants me to feel pain," Naruto mumbled,

" _ **Twisted,"**_ Kurama muttered, not fazed by the chaos happening around him,

Naruto allowed himself to be pulled in by the satellite and when he touched down he dug his seven tails into the rock face like a mole. He too entered the satellite and summoned as much demon chakra to his hands as possible, slapping them together when his palms began to burn, _"Push!"_

His seven tails burst out from inside the satellite and his now hazy red bubble hummed with energy, a devastating explosion rocked through the air and forced the clones on the ground to form 'Earth release: World's greatest earth defence' to cover up any Ame citizen that wasn't able to. The seal attack-defence alone wouldn't have done anything but the fact that his seven tails had perforated holes out of the satellite to destabilize the pulling force was why the attack blew up into smaller rocks that fell back to the earth. As the worst of the heavy rocks stopped falling the clones dropped the earth jutsu and all bore witness to Naruto spreading his tails as far as possible, an eighth one joined in, to stop his quick descent to the ground. It was like looking at a horrifying and at the same time alluring creature sent by kami that bore the power that could overcome their 'god', Pein.

Their mouths fell open at the glorious sight above them; the fire surrounding Naruto, the tails catching as much air as possible to slow him down, his glaringly blood red eyes staring down his hate at the path that had caused the destruction of more than half of his own village, and the growing black orb in his right hand. as his tails stretched out even more but at the same time curved like a work of art the signature Ame rain stopped pouring, making it look like the very village they were standing on was waiting with bated breathe for what the blonde boy was about to do.

"Oh no," the shadow clones said as one and hastily erected rock walls from the ground, making a solid mile long wall that covered the crowd, and put their hands against the surfaces. A reinforcement seal spiralled out from their hands for the sole purpose of containing the shockwave that was to come.

Naruto raised the ball of inky black demonic chakra over his head and growled, "I'll show you _**pain**_ ," the ball grew till it was roughly the same size as the leaders tower in Hidden Rain, and the Deva path stubbornly stayed in place, deficient in chakra, to absorb the tailed beast ball. The single attack crashed down on its lone target and shockwave after shockwave washed over everyone, throwing debris around, _**"Super spinning tailed beast ball!"**_ Naruto's yell echoed over the chaos the beast ball was causing. The leader's tower behind Deva was hit by a backlash and it was first stripped down of all the stone, then the wood and finally the support beams were blown away. The building crumbled but the focus of the attack was the Deva path, the ball pushed down and spun in a circle that grinded against the paths arms, the tired path was using all he could to suck out the deadly chakra and make it its own. The chakra was just too much for him and he was slammed into the ground, his chest and head were soon grinded into dust, leaving only his arms and his legs. Naruto could see some chakra in the rain visibly crack like glass, that was when it dawned on him; he had been inside a self-barrier, probably on the Naraka path, the most valuable path. That must be the reason why Daku or Mole weren't with his throughout the fight.

As the ball rolled to a stop and slowly dissolved, the remainder was sucked back into Naruto's right hand and back into his chakra store. His tails jammed into the ground just outside the massive crater and gently lowered him on the ground before the headless path. His face was stoic as he slowly looked up from the pit he had created at the destroyed tower. His tails acted like prehensile limbs by hefting him out of the crater and carrying him to the crumbled building. He was again gently dropped and he allowed his senses to lead him through the rubble, casually using his tails to pick up huge chunks of earth purely on instinct. Naruto stopped and had two tails to push off a slab of wall and he knelt down on one knee beside the broken body of the crippled rinnegan holder. The man had his eyes closed as he took in deep breathes, the jinchuriki sat down beside the man with his legs crossed, his guard still very well up but his glasses detected that Pein was incredibly low on chakra, _painfully_ low. The rinnegan holder was an unhealthy red haired man with various piercings on his chest and back, the chakra rods had broken off,

"Did anyone die?" Pein asked with his eyes still closed,

In response a clone within the citizen hoard of popped, shocking most but not making them raise weapons; the blonde clones had saved them from total annihilation, the crumbling seal enforced rock walls were proof of that. The real Naruto shook his head, "no casualties, the place needs some re-building though,"

Pein sighed deeply, "You fought well, Naruto,"

"Likewise,"

"Do I at least get a chance to tell my story before you kill me, Naruto," because his limited senses knew that Naruto already had a seal ready to chop off his head at a moment's notice,

"You have a story?" Naruto raised an eyebrow,

"Everyone has a story," here Nagato finally opened his rinnegan eye and weakly spared a small smile at the blonde power house,

Naruto shrugged and removed a seal from inside his sleeve, he placed it on Pein's bare chest, simple silver ropes held the older man down but Naruto tapped the seal a few times so the seal would only restrain the man fully, preventing him from moving, but the chakra drain wasn't present though the chakra levels remained low, "I have to be careful, you know,"

Pein chuckled breathily and shook his head, "I understand. I would do the same in the your position,"

"You said something about a story,"

"Of course, you see I have always wanted peace. Ameagakure has never seen peace until I arrived to defeat Hanzo the Salamander, but before that I was a child that had parents and more than enough friends. I was happy, even though the crippling war was wearing everything down, but the first sign that it was all falling apart when my pet dog died…"

Off at the very edge of Rain Obito stood in his seething rage. Everything he had built had crumbled right before his very eyes and it was that blonde _**rat**_ that caused everything. Just thinking about Naruto made his blood boil. The fact that he was still cautious from outright attacking Naruto was because the boy was still at full strength even after all the chakra that had been thrown around; his sharingan eye could see the massive well of spare storage inside the Kyuubi containment seal. Another thing that dissuaded him from just taking the blonde child with a well-timed kamui was the fact that he was still not sure if Naruto had his chakra control destruction seal. He could still feel his chakra control fluctuate slightly, he still had a good grasp on his control but who knows how many more Naruto had. Another factor was the sharingan destroying seal Naruto still had in development, he had read Zetsus report on what the seal had done to Danzo and he had personally seen what it could do against Itachi, used by Mole.

Obito was sucked into a kamui, a plan already in motion in his head. It was time to begin his public campaign with sharingan in _**both**_ of his eyes, or…

He could always take the rinnegan…

 **Authors note**

 **Alright to make some things clear in this chapter before anyone comes after my head:**

 **First off the thing that was jamming the connection to reverse summon Naruto was the chakra rain pouring around Ameagakure AND the self-barrier seal on the Naraka path. Second, I might have forgotten a few of the Rinnegan's abilities, pardon me but my memory and the net can only help me so far. The fight was deliberately long cuz…c'mon; this is The Six paths of Pein we're talking about. I hope I wrote the fight well. Third, I am aware of the fact that I put Kyuubi as a demon but let me clarify that he is** _ **not**_ **a demon; he is a construct of pure, evil, dense, deadly chakra with consciousness. The demon part was to add the intimidation factor and to let it sink in just how much pent up rage and power he holds. So no, I will not be calling Kurama the nine tailed demon (Kyuubi no Yoko), I'll call I'm the nine tailed fox (Kyuubi no Kitsune). Fourth thing is that if it seems Kyuubi isn't aware of all of the sage's rinnegan abilities it's true, (** **SPOILER ALERT!** **) none of the tailed beasts had a consciousness when they were in the ten tails. It's understandable that he wouldn't remember** _ **everything**_ **about the rinnegan.**

 **Hope the long fight didn't make the story sour. Hope the fight scene was believable most of all. In here Naruto had full control of the** _ **eight**_ **tails of chakra that came out, and he was making instinctive use of controlling each one. Sort of like a spur of the moment thing.**

 **The story Nagato is going to tell is my way of making Naruto aware of the wider world, and what true sorrow really is. Let's stop kidding ourselves here; Pein, Konan, Yahiko and probably Kakashi and Obito have the saddest stories in 'Naruto'. Who else do you think has the saddest story in 'Naruto'? Drop your answers in the review, please. Pretty much the main reason he's even giving Nagato a chance to speak is cuz he's curious why someone with so much power would want to make 'little ol' him' feel pain. You all may disagree with Naruto listening to him at all but…it's all part of the story.**

 **With those words I bid you all adieu, don't forget to drop a review please,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	21. Chapter 21

**Yo guys!**

 **Guess who's back? :D**

 **I haven't been able to put up new chapters cuz of my surprisingly hectic life, I mean with school, family, friends, stuff like that I have been really occupied but never too occupied to not reply to PM's.**

 **Thank you all very much for your wicked awesome reviews! Shout out to everyone. Don't stop there; keep 'em coming.**

 **To 'MLSLG': dude, this isn't the first time or even the last time a guy would bear a girl's name and vice versa. It happens in real life and it also happens in stories. It shouldn't be strange to anymore. PLUS, anime and manga are getting more and more gender neutral, meaning a guy would look and sound like a girl AND vice versa. I can chalk up Noriko Manzo having a girl's name to his dead parents desire to have a girl but, y'know, they had him. Hope I answered you question. Thank you for your review.**

 **Oof, my hearts thumping now… I'm freaking nervous; this is almost like the first time I'm writing a story. Please leave a review on your thoughts, opinions, criticisms, etc. They would be greatly appreciated.**

 **Let me not bore you with my mindless chatter.**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 21

Wave country was a rapidly developing country that was fully allied to Waterfall, Marsh, Fang, Smoke and Chill. The country was also allied, but not fully, to Konoha, Suna and Kiri, possibly even to Kumo. Wave was on friendly trade oriented relations with Kumo, Snow country, Demon country and the Village Hidden in the Shadows. Wave country was on neutral relations with Iron country (like every other shinobi village/country). The only villages to note that weren't on positive terms with Wave was Iwagakure and Hidden in the Sound village. The villages though that were in positive or neutral relations with Wave alone made up almost half of the entire elemental nations; where every village that was tied to Wave associated with each other without shame and benefited in spades from this association, no village or country had any complaints, even the picky samurai in iron country, so even though it wasn't his core goal Naruto had spread peace to the other villages he was allied to, fully or not, through contact. Wave though wasn't the only part of the six minor village alliance that were allied to other villages and countries, Marsh village was allied to Hidden Mountain, this indirectly evened out relations with every other member of the six village alliance, facilitating trade and movement of shinobi from villages. Smoke was allied to Feather village, a shinobi village that was enemies with Fang village, but when Smoke had allied with Feather they had agreed to set aside their differences and trade, for the benefit of those under them. Even though Wave was not allied to Feather _formally,_ relations with the hidden village were good, he even had some civilians making requests to move there and setting up shops. This could be said with his alliance to the major hidden villages; Sunagakure was not allied to Mountain village _formally_ but currently there were Suna shinobi conducting joint missions with each other, and this fact was because they had seen that the six village alliance was legitimate and by extension the villages allied to each was also worth working with. With each village allying to either Wave or any other village Wave was allied to the notion that order can be maintained if all worked well with each other was being spread unconsciously. So far there hadn't been any _**major**_ arguments or complaints from any other village that hadn't been settled on the spot.

That was what he told Nagato.

"There are easier ways to go about seeking peace, Nagato; I found my peace in Wave and apparently it spread to the villages I am allied to, both directly and indirectly, it wasn't what I was expecting but it is what happened, I have no complaints," Naruto said as he stared down at the tied up rinnegan holder, "I understand that you have lost nearly everything and I sympathize but to seek peace by putting everyone through pain…? I may still be very young compared to my comrades but I know that that is not the way to go, bringing death and destruction wherever you go is not the way to go. You called yourself unbeatable, you called yourself a god…I have beat you…but I will not call myself a god. I do _not_ call myself a god,"

"What do you call yourself then, Naruto," Nagato asked, looking up at Naruto with his purple rippled eyes,

"I call myself a shinobi," he simply replied, he put his hands on his knees and pursed his lips, "give me a reason not to kill you, Nagato,"

"I have none," it wasn't a stubborn statement, it was the truth

"Fair enough," Naruto whipped out a kunai from his right sleeve and was about to slit the rinnegan holders throat until,

"Wait!" the boy hummed and looked at who had yelled, his weapon on Nagato's throat; the person that had called was the female with purple hair he had knocked out, "D-don't kill him, p-please," her cloak was torn in places to reveal her purple thigh length shirt that had a slit opening so all could see her toned stomach. Her usual stoic façade was long gone, in its place were tears that cascaded down her pale porcelain face, smeared black eyeliner and wiped off purple lipstick, "I'm begging you," Konan knelt down unabashed in front of Naruto with her forehead touching the ground,

"And why shouldn't I kill him, he kidnapped me from my home and threatened to destroy everything I've built,"

"He's the only one I have left," she pleaded with her head still bowed; she couldn't attack Naruto, he had defeated the strongest person she knew,

"I had no one…before Wave, and he threatened to take it away from me," Naruto said this coolly, though he squeezed the handle of his knife and pressed it a little deeper into Nagato's neck,

Naruto looked at Nagato and saw that the man already had his eyes closed, a resigned expression on his face. There was a tense five minutes of silence before Naruto raised his hand and allowed the kunai to slip back into his sleeve, disappearing once the tip was out of sight without even leaving a bulge. He stood up and dusted off his black ninja pants then his jounin flak jacket before he looked at the still kneeling woman, "I won't kill him…yet," Konan sobbed out her relief and quietly blubbered her thanks to him, "I will give you both two options to choose from,"

"Yes," she immediately said, sending Nagato a harsh glare for him to keep quiet; he was still very much in the blonde power houses mercy,

"The first option is that I kill you both and keep this whole village under stasis just in case they come after me," this had to do with the same seal Minato and Kushina used to preserve their house after all these years despite Mikoto Uchiha occasionally going there to tidy up. Naruto's level ten parents had combined their genius into making a containment and restraint seal not limited to chakra outburst but more on movement of living and non-living things as well, human beings included and spread it out over a large area; Naruto didn't need to be a level ten to learn the seal, but it did take a considerable amount of concentration to do so. Nagato and Konan looked at him sceptically, "I'm sure you've heard what Wave did to Hoshigakure for just attempting to invade, you threatened to destroy my country. Plus…if I'm able to create a trap seal that is able to hold down a room of low jounin until they are dispatched of, what's to say I can't seal-cryo-freeze every member of this village, after killing you and Nagato, of course." he pointed out and she rubbed the back of her head at the memory of Naruto halting all of her movements after her overhead punch, then she couldn't even turn around to defend against the punches he returned to her head,

"What's the second option?" Konan asked quietly, expecting the worse,

"The second option is that, as crazy as it may sound, I want you two under my services, not as Wave shinobi but as two highly ranked ninja I can call on for aid, this also extends to Ameagakure,"

"After everything I've done, why do you still want my help?" Nagato asked,

"One of your Akatsuki members, Sasori of the Red Sands, managed to tell me about an imminent attack that is coming to me and my country. He said Orochimaru and Iwa are going to be behind this attack and the Sannin is bringing a shinobi trained to destroy me; he is a sick, twisted man so I can only assume what will happen to Wave after my death. I want…no…I need your help."

Konan had already made her decision but she hesitantly looked at the rinnegan holder; Naruto was giving them a chance to live. The first option was out of the way since they would still end up dying but the second option…

The boy had not said that they would be his personal servants or even his lap dogs; he called them highly ranked shinobi that would come to his aid when he needed it. It was a touch on their pride as highly powered shinobi **(and** _ **yes**_ **I'm also referring to Konan as well. I'm a part of the group of people that believe she is** _ **also**_ **an S rank ninja…now back to the story, I apologise for the interruption)** ,

"Ok," Nagato simply said after a sigh, "we will help you,"

"Then we should set up a mutual alliance…Ame can join in with every other village allied to the minor six, you will see the profit in this," Naruto said but after a short hesitation he continued, "quite frankly your village is in bad shape,"

"You will help us rebuild? After what we have done?" Konan said sceptically and Naruto nodded, "then it's settled,"

"Hai, where do we sign?"

Naruto pursed his lip for a full minute, looking at the duo and the clones that managed to keep the gathering crowd out of ear shot before he said, "I hope you understand…you tried to kill me and you have jutsu that is able to level an entire country with no problem…" he trailed off as his eyes flicked to the restraint seal on Nagato's chest and the red haired man realized what Naruto was saying,

"You wish to place a seal on me,"

"It's purely for insurance purposes. You see…I love my country and every other country and village my country is allied to, and a shinobi of your calibre-"

"I understand," the older man said with a small smile,

"Are you sure…?"

"Hai, I am what most people call a 'loose cannon'"

"Nagato…" Konan started,

"It's fine, I understand your position. You may place it on me,"

Naruto wasn't exactly _asking_ for permission, but he humoured the man, "First I want to explain just what I'm placing on you," Naruto said and explained; it was a variation of a prisoner control seal he had augmented, he drew it on the rinnegan holders forehead and a similar but at the same time a different variation of the seal appeared on the back of Naruto's hand, he showed it to Nagato, "it is directly connected to your brain, you may hold negative thoughts about me and my friends but if you act on them it would first paralyse you and notify me, then I would _fry_ your brain if I want, I don't need to be in your immediate vicinity to do it too. Believe me when I say that that seal is _tested_ and _trusted_ ," there were a few Hoshi clan members that had tried to sell secrets to other hidden villages, not fully aware that the villages they intended to sell them to were 'mutually allied' with Wave, which pretty much means they were not formally allied to Wave but were allied to the villages Wave was allied to; Naruto was notified and they were made examples of, as vile as it sounded it was a necessity to show that he was still the same person that had invaded Hoshigakure. In the young leaders defence…he _did_ warn them…at least now the Hoshi clan were a tiny bit more loyal to Wave, apparently they didn't take too well to traitors, whether from their clan or from the entire country of Wave.

"The brain is connected to the eyes…that means…"

"Yes, your eyes go too,"

"Do I get one as well?" Konan asked,

"I've already placed a tracking seal on you, don't bother trying to find it, it is very well hidden," it was at the back of her head, somewhere on her scalp,

The woman huffed tiredly and shrugged, "as long as Nagato doesn't die,"

"He won't as long as he stays friendly," he then pulled out an empty scroll from one of his bottomless sleeves, a scroll that was meant for sealing but it would have to do for now, "now, about that alliance…" he released the restraint seal from the rinnegan holder.

The blonde boy stayed for two hours, outlining what they would be doing in the alliance and all the lines they could not cross. The duo told him what they wanted from the alliance and it was finally settled when he shook hands with the purple haired woman, seeing as Nagato was still tied up. This was when he finally remembered something,

"What about that man in the mask?"

Konan too wondered the same thing, "he was just here…" she looked around before she shrugged, she never liked that man anyway, why should she care where he was?

"Who is he?"

"Uchiha Madara,"

Naruto snorted, amused, "that's not possible,"

"I know, that was what he called himself but I can say that he is one of Madara's followers,"

"He has the sharingan?" Naruto asked slowly, afraid of the answer he would get and a weight settled on his stomach,

"He has the highest form a sharingan can have,"

Sasuke had told him something similar when he had spoken to the boy about the Uchiha clan massacre. The young Uchiha had said that Itachi's usual sharingan had 'changed' and he was placed in a 'strange genjutsu' for hours but it turned out to be only a few minutes just before he passed out. Naruto also remembered when Itachi had thrown black fire at the loyal Konoha Sannin duo back in Tanzuki town when Itachi and Kisame had come to retrieve him; the blonde seal master could bet all his life's saving that that was not a normal jutsu or even normal sharingan ability. The boy could only guess the extents the eye techniques could go, and he asked Nagato and Konan to tell him all they knew about this masked person that called himself Madara Uchiha, a name most would not even think to call themselves if they did not have the ability to back it up. As the thirteen and a half year old boy listened to what the duo were telling him of what they knew about the person that called himself Madara he realized that nearly everything he had done since he was four could be nullified very easily; Madara could teleport himself directly in front of him and this would force him to look into his Mangekyo sharingan, putting him into a mind numbing illusion. The man could cast a wide scale black flame attack (amaterasu) over Wave and the young seal master would be almost helpless to watch, of course he was able to seal the fire, the problem lay in the fact that it would slip past his defences almost with the ease of butter. He didn't even want to think how easily the man would be able to get the jinchuriki if he actually wanted to, a simple teleportation directly behind the jinchuriki, like how he kidnapped him from his reinforced Kyuubi chakra training room. Madara could simply grab the tailed beast holder and pull him into a contained environment and, simply put, hold them down with a genjutsu.

The situation juts got dire.

All of this was _without_ adding Rai or even Kisame, who were still missing after the fight at Wave. Rai was fully capable of running faster than Daku, since she was the living embodiment of lightning, and Kisame had a sword as well as years of experience on how to fight against any shinobi with strange, volatile chakra (jinchuriki).

Madara Uchiha was most likely enraged that he had been able to defeat the Akatsuki in entirety, not by himself, of course. A man did not call himself the single most dominant Uchiha in history and was not able to back up the reputation. He had to get back to Wave and set in motion a few more things. Like that every jinchuriki that he was friendly with would have a chakra destruction seal and maybe even an automatic sharingan destruction seal on them, that way when they were grabbed through a teleportation they would be able to face the man, hold him off until reinforcements arrived. Another problem was that whenever it came to kekkai genkai, or even clan based abilities, his seal work on them was _always_ experimental. This was understandable since he couldn't just walk up to a Yamanaka clan member, for instance, and say 'hey, would you mind if I tested my 'Mind-body block seal' on you? I want to be able to negate your kekkai genkai whenever I want to. You understand right?'

Quite frankly it was ridiculous just thinking about it.

Naruto didn't notice he had been silent for thirty minutes, staring into the ground with his eyebrows furrowed and his lips pursed in thought. He had a niggling feeling that the mother of all wars was coming and it would all start with the Sound-Rock battle.

"I need to be heading back to Wave now, I have things to prepare. I will be sending some of my shinobi to help rebuild your village," he stood up and was about to leap onto his flying seal board until Konan called after him,

"Thank you, Naruto," she stood up and bowed slightly to him,

He waved over his shoulder and said, "Don't make me regret this…" and he took off into the sky.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 _One week later_

Temari hastily read through an arm length scroll and murmured the words under her breathe as she stopped in front of the Wave leaders office door; she gulped a little and read through it again, and then again before she took a deep breathe and slipped the scroll into a pocket inside her kimono. She was clad in a short blue with white short sleeved battle kimono with black tights that stopped mid-calf and light blue shinobi sandals. The fifteen year old girl closed her teal green eyes and took another deep breathe, smoothing out the invisible wrinkles on her dress before she knocked on the door politely.

"Enter,"

A gentle smile etched onto her face when she heard Naruto's voice and she pushed the door open, peaking in and waving a little to the Wave leader, "hey there Naruto-sama,"

The blonde boy looked up at her and smiled back at her, "Temari," his eyes trailed over what she wore, the same as she usually wore but at the same time…different and his nose also took in the faint smell of lily and rose perfume, a smell he greatly enjoyed whenever he was sketching nature, "how may I help you?"

The girl slipped in and closed the door quietly, thanking her lucky stars that Frog was stationed in the receptionist area and Daku was in the DARK commanders office, "I came over to say hi and to see how you're doing," she idly put a strand of her blonde hair behind her ear then realized that they were still in her four signature pig tails,

"Thank you for your concern, Temari. I'm fine, how are you?" he looked down at the document he was reading before she entered into his office, a request for a fountain to be built inside the mall; he stamped his approval and dropped the thin document in the 'out' section,

"I'm also fine," she chirped and lilted on her heels, "I was wondering though…"

"Yes?" the boy said as he began organizing his desk, the girl already knowing what was going to happen,

"Are you going to be free soon…?"

Naruto looked at her with his eyebrows furrowed before he slowly nodded, "in fact I'm about to head for my evening break, I'll be back her in three hours. What do you need me to do?" it was about an hour after sunset,

"I was wondering if we could have dinner…together," she quickly raised her hand when his eyes widened in horror, "I'm not the one cooking; there's this nice place in the market district that make great food,"

The boy silently looked at her with his critical sky blue eyes before a slow smirk crawled onto his face when he caught a light tinge of red on her cheeks, "you know my schedule," he stated matter-of-factedly,

She stared back into his eyes for a full minute until a nervous giggle escaped her lips and she looked away, scratching the back of her neck, "yeah…"

The blonde boy took off his Wave leader robes and hung it on his office chair, showing the older by two years blonde girl that he was wearing a short sleeved light blue shirt that showed his spider webbing seal tattoos that covered his arms and disappeared into his sleeve, and calf length black ninja pants. He also had on his seal glasses but he took them off and sealed them into a storage seal on his neck. The boy ushered her out of his office and closed the door behind him, she vaguely suspected that it was now locked off from the world. Probably only his inner circle members could enter.

The boy put his hands behind his back and began walking to the exit of the main administrative tower of Wave country, nodding for her to follow, she hurried after him with her hands clasped together in front of her,

"Where is this place you were talking about?"

"In the market district, across the street from Hitsuriji-san's grocery shop," Hitsuriji was a farmer that had moved to Wave from Kiriagakure, he was in the process of getting a dual citizenship but he had taken special permission from Naruto; the young man bought a small farm in Outer Wave, near a cluster of separated farms owned by Wave born and Hoshi clan members,

They walked in silence through the well-lit but emptying streets of Wave, waving to the few civilians and shinobi that still walked around either to close up shop or pick up their children in the civilian academy that were doing extra-curricular activities. Naruto pursed his lips and Temari caught his expression from the side of her eyes, she gulped at what it meant, "Can you tell me what else you know about me, Temari?"

"I-I don't know-"

"You know my Saturday evening break time, that's pretty specific if you ask me," Naruto eyed her suspiciously before he lightened his facial expression, "I'm just curious,"

The Suna konouchi bit the bottom of her lip nervously and glanced at the taller blonde before she sighed and said, "your favourite colour is blue, you like ramen, you sleep for only two hours every day even if you try to sleep for longer, you're a natural sensor but you have seals that boost your sensory abilities, you don't need those glasses but you wear them to make you seem less intimidating, in my opinion it's not working," she looked away discreetly and blushed,

Naruto chuckled and shook his head, "most of that could be found out in the library,"

"I just paid attention,"

"It's seems you did," the boy trailed on as he held the door to the low key eatery open for the Suna ninja to enter,

The place was styled in a style in a currently reigning fad where there will be nostalgic, warm furniture and appliances that eerily reminded everyone who entered of their home, that is if they _had_ a home. There were small tables around the café and a bar where those that wanted to eat could sit and order, this was where the blonde duo sat down. A bushy browed man wearing a white rolled up long sleeved shirt with black formal pants that had suspenders walked up to them and smiled,

"Welcome to Ivy's coast, my name is Tsuruji. What can I get you, Naruto-sama and Temari-san?" he motioned to the vast menu they had that hung over head behind him and Naruto squinted his eyes and said,

"A number three and one please, I'm in the mood for something light," he propped up an elbow on the bar counter and turned to Temari,

"I'll have the same, thank you,"

The man scribbled down their orders in a small jotter and muttered, "so that's two miso soups and water," he tore off the page and handed it to the chef, walking off and sliding two cups of water to them, "if you need anything else just give me a ring," he placed a bronze bell on the table, bowed and left,

It was silent between them, Temari began frantically scrambling for everything she had rehearsed but for some reason it kept slipping from her fingers, "so…how was your day?"

Naruto began wondering where she was getting at (already?) "It was great actually; I got a lot of work done today?" he propped his elbow in the counter and looked at her,

She too mirrored his posture and leaned forward, "like what?"

"I've sent some seals to villages with jinchuriki in case anyone tries to kidnap them, I've finally finished selling off the land in fire country I inherited from my parents and the chunin exams arena construction here is going well," they weren't exactly secret projects and Temari was a relative to the Kazekage, Gaara, so she would be aware of the threat of the masked man and of the looming battle. Suna, Konoha and Kiri had reaffirmed their positions as Naruto's allies and had sworn to lend help to them when the war started, the other six minor villages he was allied to gave him the answer he was predicting, yes, since Naruto himself wouldn't hesitate to help them as well. Kumogakure though were still sceptical with the alliance with Wave and had been mainly keeping an eye out for any signs of deception, Naruto was scheduled to visit the Raikage at Kumo in about two months, which was almost four months to the deadline for the battle to begin.

"That _is_ great," she thanked the waitress that dropped their food, "your students, the ones you have in Konoha, are planning on entering the chunin exams,"

"Hai, I'm sure they're ready for a promotion,"

"Yes, there was a mission I went on with Sasuke-san to raid a slavery ring in the deserts near Suna. He was unstoppable, I didn't know you could teach so well," Temari complimented.

Sasuke and Naruto's other two Konoha students had been visiting Wave three times a week to train, they usually arrived with the rest of her team or, in Yakumo's case, a few Kurama guards. Sasuke had made significant progress in his training under the blonde leader; he had been focusing on becoming a stealth/assassination kind of shinobi. Weight seals had been placed on him and limiting seals on his arms as well to force the boy to _really_ concentrate if he wanted to perform a jutsu. Since the Uchiha were reputed for being ninjutsu masters he had tasked Sasuke to master every C rank fore jutsu he could find and boost it with his changed cursed seal, a seal he was still training with. This also reminded Naruto that Tsunade had taken up Sakura Haruno, Sasuke's female team mate, as an apprentice, a sort of one sided rivalry the Senju had to on up Naruto when it came to training students, Daku had informed him of Sakura's development during their Gaara retrieval mission. Sai had also gotten the attention of Tenzo, an ANBU captain and he was also receiving extra lessons.

Naruto smiled at the girl, "It's one thing to teach and it's another to accept what is being taught. Sasuke is just a good student," he sipped a spoon full of his bean soup. Then another memory came to him of when Neji had found him in his special place so he could make a request,

 _Flashback_

 _Konohagakure,_

 _A few days after the team picnic,_

Naruto was sitting in his special place on his wheelchair in front of a painting set placed so he could easily reach it, a palette in his left hand a brush in his right. Yakumo was standing beside him with her own painting set; both were going through the slow motions of drawing a tree fifteen paces in front of them. The ten year old girl was in a stiff standing posture and Naruto looked at her from the corner of his eyes,

"Is there something bothering you, Yakumo?" he went back to painting the tree,

"I'll tell you after training, sensei,"

"Why not now?"

She pursed her lips tightly and was about to speak until she felt Naruto place a hand on her shoulder, now standing on his feet beside her, "does it have to do with graduating from the academy early?"

The girl dropped her brush in shock and turned to him sharply, "how did you know?"

Naruto winked at her and patted her back, "have you forgotten? I was signed up as one of your next of kin. You're the only main branch member of your clan left and everyone now knows I'm your teacher. Does that bother you?"

She frantically shook her head and clasped her hands to her chest, looking up at him with tears in her eyes, "not at all, I'm glad. So…do you approve?"

He placed a hand on her shoulder and smiled at her, "is that what _you_ want? Is anyone pressuring you?"

"No sensei, I have honestly learnt more in a week from you than in a month over there. My taijutsu is passable, my ninjutsu is good and my genjutsu is ok,"

"You're selling yourself short, kid; your taijutsu is very good for one of your upbringing and physical health, your ninjutsu is growing and your genjutsu is almost unbeatable,"

She bowed quickly, "thank you sensei,"

He ruffled her hair, "I was just being honest. We can talk more about it later, we have a visitor," she bent her head and nodded slightly. Neji walked out of the shrubs curtly and crossed his arms tightly when Naruto saw him,

"I came to speak to you, Naruto-san," he said and his byakugan eyes quickly motioned to the brown haired Kurama princess,

"Can you meet me back her in thirty minutes, Yakumo?"

"Hai, Naruto-sensei," she bowed again and was about to pack up her painting set until Naruto waved for her to leave them,

"We still things to discuss," he winked at her and she flushed a little before she scampered past Neji into the shrubs and out into the training ground situated in front of his special place, "what do you want to talk about, Neji-san?"

The Hyuuga branch member hesitated, frowning deeply and glaring to his right until he opened his mouth and muttered, "can you help me get this off?" he untied his hitaite to show the level nine and a half seal master the hideous caged bird seal. Naruto walked up to him and when he was given non-verbal permission to touch it he traced the seal with his pointer finger, "well? Can you?"

Naruto stepped back and crossed his arms, "I can. I assume that's the famed Hyuuga caged bird seal; it is an archaic, unused variation of the prisoner seal that is so old I am shocked it's still in existence. Any level nine or ten seal master will be able to break it with no problem, much easier than the prisoner seals used these days,"

"Then…please…"

Naruto shrugged and suppressed a small wince, "that is a clan administered seal, even though I'm not a shinobi, I'm still a member of this village. I'm technically bound by law not to interfere with clan affairs; it's specifically written in Konoha's founding charter,"

Neji took the news well; he clenched his fists tightly but his face remained neutral, "you haven't cared about rules before, why start now?"

Naruto looked at the older boy for a minute before he replied, "there are something's that are out of my power, that seal has a tracking seal on it; the moment I take it off your clan head would be notified,"

"Then your useless to me," Neji snarled and turned around,

The blonde seal master raised an eyebrow and said after him, "seals can't do everything, you know," Neji stopped in his tracks but remained turned, "like seals can't give me my leg back forever,"

"You can already walk-"

"That's the popular perception with you guys; I can walk, no big deal. But the thing is the seal that helps me walk runs on a battery fuelled by my own strength, my chakra; if I'm on my feet for too long it would begin tapping into my life's essence," Neji didn't know how to respond to that, "but with every seal there is a loop hole, or a way to go around it,"

"Is there…is there a loop hole for the caged bird seal?" the Hyuuga prodigy asked hesitantly,

Naruto actually scoffed, "of course there is. That seal is pretty much the second version of the prisoner seal, which was created many, many, _many_ years ago. The standard prisoner seal used in Konoha is the seventh version," the Hyuugas eyes widened a little at the implication; it showed just how old and primitive the caged bird seal was, "but I will reaffirm what I have said, anyone below level nine wouldn't be able to break it because it needs a certain level of patience to understand and act on what the person to understand. Hell, the standard storage seal used these days is the _thirteenth_ version. Problem is that the Uzumaki clan were usually in charge of updating various seals and, you know, they were wiped out. So that means that the last time a seal was updated it was over twenty maybe thirty years ago, much overdue if you ask me. But I'm getting side tracked," it was a habit of his whenever he spoke about fuinjutsu, "just like every seal on this planet has a counter seal, every seal has an _alter_ -seal. Just like I can alter the storage seal to make the infinity storage seal, or I can alter the trap seal to make the 'light or strong contact trap seal'. It's all about looking at the bigger picture and knowing exactly what you want," there was much more to fuinjutsu than Neji would admit he appreciated, who would have thought that seals, once upon a time, were being _updated_? "Since that seal on your forehead is so damn _old_ it can be altered," he walked up to Neji and tapped his shoulder, "I need you to tell me a few things first,"

The older boy turned around and the blonde motioned to a plain wooden chair he had unsealed from his wrist. Neji slowly sat down and Naruto returned to his wheelchair, "What do you want to know?"

"Why do you want it off?"

The boy didn't answer him for five minutes and Naruto simply sat forward and continued his painting. Neji finally caved when the silence got too heavy, "you said it yourself, it's a prisoner seal. I feel trapped and it's messing with my concentration,"

"And your perception," Naruto piped in from behind his canvas,

"What-"

"The fact you antagonize Hinata whenever you see her, and for no clear reason either, it's the seal right?" he asked with light sarcasm,

"She…she…she is weak…" he slowly said, already doubting what he had said,

"I have trained Hinata for months, Neji-san. I know you've been watching her spars with her sister, Hanabi; she doesn't seem so weak anymore, is she?"

Neji's shoulders slumped in defeat, it was true. During the Sound-Sand invasion, as he was also running with his team to help fight the invaders, his byakugan had caught a whirlwind of blood and gore waft past them. It was Hinata, and she was _unstoppable_. She would pass by a perfectly healthy chunin invader and when you look at the chunin again they would either have their heads caved in or have a large chunk of their chest over their heart carved out. That time Lee was still in the hospital and Gai was busy at the other side of the village defending the walls. Neji shook his head, lowered a little and his eyes drooped, "no…Hinata is strong," he clenched his fists after admitting this; Hinata could now be stronger than even him now. Just how the hell was Naruto training her? Yakumo too for that matter; the Kurama princess was at the top of her class in the academy. They were supposed to be those fated to always be weak; "it's that…" he trailed off,

Naruto paused and looked around his painting canvas at him, "you don't need to tell me if it's too personal, Neji-san,"

Neji shook his head slightly and blinked away the thin layer of tears on his eyes, "no, I need to get this out," Naruto furrowed his eyebrows and dropped his paint brush, motioning for Neji to continue, "it's that…nine years ago a Kumo shinobi kidnapped her from her bedroom and her father killed the person. My Tou-san…sacrificed himself so that her Tou-san could survive. It…it was because he was a branch member and his life was unimportant to main branch member,"

"So you chose to blame her for your father's death since you couldn't antagonize her father or Kumogakure," Neji shrugged and nodded slightly, "what if I told you that it wasn't a Kumo shinobi that kidnapped Hinata?"

"I'd say that's preposterous; there was even a Kumo hitaite found,"

"They didn't recover the body because it spontaneously combusted, am I correct?"

Neji tried to cover up his shocked look expertly but his eyes widened only a little, he nodded, "Tou-san told me that was what Hiashi-sama saw," after the body burst into flames another body was unsealed,

"The thing about those sort of things is that there are some things that are out of our control and some things you think make sense but don't even make the slightest bit of sense. Like I once assumed that once I was able to make an explosive tag I would be invincible, but I was obviously wrong. I blame it on my inability to walk and my lack of confidence, avoiding the fact that it is logically impossible to use bombs defensively. I blamed something within my reach instead of the bigger picture; which was that I was too young to understand just what I wanted,"

"So what's the bigger picture in my situation?"

"That there are things out of your control and that there are also things that are within reach. You might not notice this but there are a lot of things our elders hide from us for our own good,"

"So…you're saying that my Tou-san lied to me to cover up the bigger picture…?"

Naruto nodded, "yes, for a while though. You were much too young to go into a rampaging investigation on what truly happened when Hinata was kidnapped,"

"Oh," the boys shoulder sagged, "did…did Hinata-sama ever tell you what happened that night?"

Naruto nodded again, "she did. She even watched her father kill the man. She says the person that took her wore a white mask, which he took off when Hiashi-sama showed up and that before he died he dropped a Kumo forehead protector," the Hyuuga clan head was allowed limited knowledge of some of the inner workings of Konoha, so Hiashi would have at least suspected that something was wrong. Mole had mentioned a mission where a Kumo delegate was killed in his quarters in the Hyuuga main clan house. His body was hidden in a seal until the ROOT shinobi had been killed.

"What do you think I should do? Where should I go from here?" degrading Hinata every step of the way and proving to her every day that she was inferior to him was all he had known since his father had died, it was what kept him going.

"That, Neji-san, is up to you,"

The Hyuuga prodigy for most of his life had thought that it was because of fate that his father had died in place of Hinata's, which since his father was a branch member their lives were expendable, and to an extent it was true. Naruto though was telling him that it was not because of the division on the clan his father was sacrificed.

Naruto interrupted his train of thought, "I can remove the limiter, and it'll put less strain on you when you want to perform any jutsu,"

He had given Neji time to reply but to this day he had received none.

 _Flashback end_

Naruto propped his head on his hand and was now listening to what Temari was saying, it was about an encounter she had during a mission to Kiriagakure where she had been accompanied by Mole and her DARK team as well as a few Sand ANBU where they had caught sight of Kisame but were too slow to catch up to him.

Naruto's head snapped up when he felt a sharp pinch to his arm and the Sand princess paused in her story, "what the f-"

"Is there anything wrong, Naruto-sama?"

The blonde seal master hastily pulled out a few crisp notes from his pocket and paid for both of their meals, he grabbed her by her forearm and ran out of the restaurant with her, she hastily got her feet back under her and ran with him. His eyes were fractionally wide as he ran to the library, he didn't respond to the librarian as he greeted him but rather sped up the stairs to the top floor. There was a thick iron door on the top floor with hypnotizing spiral-like seal painted on it; Naruto swiped over it with his thumb and pushed his hand through the centre where the spiral met and turned it in the direction of the spiral, there was a soft clicking sound and the door swished open to reveal Tobi casually pulling out a seal from the 'C' section of the library. The red masked man looked at them mutely before a muttered,

" _Amaterasu,"_ just as a vortex swallowed him up, "times running out, Naruto,"

"Shit," the black flames travelled towards them, burning the seals they passed by to a crisp but as it reached Naruto he spread his arms then crossed his forearms, standing in front of the stunned Sand konouchi. His forearm protectors melting out of their storage seals and covered his arms. The blonde girl watched in awe as the unstoppable black flames clashed against Naruto's forearms and were summarily sucked in by a sky blue whirlpool of water.

The young seal master wasted no time to run to where the Uchiha had picked a seal from and muttered a quiet curse as he rubbed his eyes, Temari quirked her eyebrows in question,

"He took my 'Chakra high seal,'" he muttered quietly as he looked around the half burned room, which had absorption and suppression seals dotted around that contained the amaterasu flames from burning down the whole building. When she still looked at him confused he elaborated, "The seal Mole has that boosts her abilities,"

"The one that gives her pink fire?" she asked slowly, afraid of the answer but her heart sunk when the blonde boy nodded, she too quietly cursed, "what about all the destroyed seals?"  
"I can replace them at any time, I have to worry about what other seal he stole," he ushered her out of the super protected S rank jutsu room. The room had been protected by what the level nine fuinjutsu scroll called the 'Tri-security seal' which not only made sure that it was his blood but also scanned his finger print and the exact way he would turn the spiral seal, there was no possible way to break it since all of this had to be done simultaneously but he had been proven wrong by the Uchiha; Tobi merely kamui teleported into the room. The only people keyed in were him, Mole, Frog and Haku; Daku didn't need to enter because he already knew every content in the S rank section since he was the one that wrote them. He secured the door, making sure he heard the soft click before he walked down the stairs,

"What are you going to do now, Naruto-sama?"

"I'm going to inform my comrades," he looked at her from the corner of his eyes and continued, "no civilian needs to find out about this happening,"

She nodded, "understood,"

' _Now I need to start those classes. What do you think, Kyu?'_

" _ **Maybe placing a sharingan destruction and chakra control destruction seal in every important room,"**_

' _Great idea but I don't think he's going to come back, but I've always been known to be too careful,'_

" _ **What about Mole's team?"**_

' _Their reports say that the borders are too tightly secured, maybe I should drop a bomb on Sound…'_

Kurama actually chuckled at the boys musing, _**"this may sound out of character but hold your horses, aren't you all about limited bloodshed and maximum reward?"**_

' _Your right…the fact remains that this Madara character may use the battle to kidnap jinchuriki,'_ six jinchuriki, him included, were already accounted for but only two of them, the eight and two tails, didn't have the dual destruction seals (sharingan and chakra control) on their person, but from their reputations and bingo book entries they were very capable of taking care of themselves, Gaara too was a formidable tailed beast holder and Fuu was just getting her feet under her when it came to controlling beast chakra, which was what the Waterfall leader was telling him. Utakata, the holder of the six tails, was strong ninja in his own right; there were very few people that could best him, even at his worst. He could take care of himself, "we can continue our dinner later, Temari," there weren't too many people outside besides two Hoshi policewomen that patrolled the streets, illuminated by bright street lights, his senses even informed him of his DARK shinobi speeding around in the darkness. He nodded to the sharp salutes the policewomen sent him and made sure the Sand princess was safely inside of her rented apartment before he walked back to his office.

The thing about being a leader about to go into a life or death battle with other hidden villages was to make sure there wasn't any mass hysteria among the civilian or even the shinobi populace. So ever since he had returned from Ameagakure Naruto had made sure to subtly display the strength of his DARK and police force to the citizen and visitors in Wave to non-verbally reassure them that no matter what hit them they were fully prepared to halt it before there was any loss of lives. He did this by having more police walk the streets during the day at different places so criminal activities were at an all-time low and by having the black ops briefly show up during the day when they were to report their mission to him, or if they wanted to leave the village. The police force and black ops had their own designated training grounds that protected them from the eyes of the public but that wasn't the case for the average ninja, which is the genin, chunin, tokubetsu jounin and jounin. The training grounds, numbered one to fifty seven, were located on the vast land in outer Wave. Some of these training grounds were more private than some but the fact still remained that civilians were free to watch if they wanted. It was a sort of internal display of strength that reassured the citizens of Waves security to make sure there wasn't any panic among them.

His budding hunter ninja corps, headed by the demon brothers, was in charge of patrolling the borders with chunin and to collect bounties, though they had to take permission from Mole or Daku before they could pursue high ranking missing ninjas from allied villages (A to S rank). They were also to idly watch over travelling merchants. It was this hunter ninja squad that informed Daku, who told Naruto, that were was growing activity coming from their borders of Sound and Rock shinobi simply watching Wave. The hunter ninja had prevented a hijacking, though the shinobi retreated before a fight could erupt.

 _Room 10_

 _The Academy,_

 _Inner Wave,_

 _Wave country._

A woman with mousy brown hair, wearing black shinobi pants and a red short sleeved shirt under a blue Wave jounin flak jacket walked into the class and the quietened down when they saw her peculiar thin scar running down from under her left eye to her chin, a battle scar she had acquired from her fight with Itachi Uchiha. Her brown eyes glinted slightly with recognition when she saw Noriko, a member of Naruto's genin team, among the thirty occupants of the classroom, most were academy student and genin, whether Wave born or Hoshi clan members; even though Noriko was being personally trained by Naruto he still wanted to attend the fuinjutsu class Rat had requested be set up. The boy flushed when she smiled a little in his direction, she walked to the front of the class and sat down on the desk,

"Good morning students. My name is Em and I will be your level one to four fuinjutsu teacher,"

"Good morning Em-sensei!" the class chorused, each member excited about learning the specialized branch of jutsu their leader specialized in,

"Leader-sama has entrusted me to lay the basic foundations of fuinjutsu on anyone willing to learn it, which just so happens to be you lot. Leader-sama has a dream of seeing a Seal corps in his ninja force, just like there is a hunter ninja corps and medic ninja corps. He has seen that this dream is possible and he also sees that each and every person in this class, as well as every person in the entire country, has the potential to master fuinjutsu. The key to mastering fuinjutsu though is patience," she looked over the students to make sure her words had sunk in before she continued, "we are all aware that Naruto-sama is a level nine and a half seal master, yes?" they nodded in agreement, "but do you know how much patience it took for him to reach the stage he is currently in? How much patience it took for him to fully master 'Contact trap seals'? Haven't you ever wondered why Naruto-sama has never exploded in a fit of rage or even gotten frustrated, that is without it being caused by people trying to destroy Wave?" she caught a few of the Wave born and Hoshi genin nod their heads to what she had asked, too wondering just what their leader had gone through to acquire so much patience.

The genin had all encountered Naruto in one way or the other, whether it was when they were submitting mission reports or he was walking through training grounds on the weekend or when he was training his genin. Each time they saw him he hadn't allowed the famed Uzumaki temper to rear its head when he was met with anything that wasn't satisfactory, rather he would encourage the person sternly to do better.

"Fuinjutsu isn't an art one can just open a scroll and master within a day or merely train your chakra control to learn to master it, similar to genjutsu. Rather you _have_ to be ready to meet disappointment and injury; your first seal may be flawless but what's to say your second seal would be the same, or even your third seal. Naruto-sama has created a lot of seals but do you know how many times he has escaped death and permanent impairment when the seal combinations were incorrect? He told me and my jounin comrades during a meeting in his office that he had once broken all the bones in his arms after he had first attempted to create the infinity storage seal, then the second attempt he had a mild concussion, it was his thirty sixth attempt that the seal was finally complete. Being stubborn is doing one thing over and over again whether it is wrong or not, but being patient is carefully going over what you have done and correcting it, if that is a failure it is not about giving up and going to the next project but pushing through and being persistent about your passion. If leader-sama had not been patient with his art Wave would still be how it was under Gato. There would be no mass development in the other five villages allied to Wave. It was a small catalyst, patience, which brought all of this into being and do any of you have any complaint about the results?" they perked up and shook their heads negatively, "do you all see how patience is a key to mastering fuinjutsu?"

"Hai Em-sensei!"

"Good, you might all come upon road blocks along the way and you may lose hope that you will remain the same but there is nothing impossible about mastering sealing," she used Naruto as an example, again, since he was the closest example they had to a successful seal master and fuinjutsu based fighter, besides Jiriaya, "when you want to give up and drop your brushes for good I want you to have something in mind," she stood up and placed her hands behind her back, her eyes roving over all of the students, who sat up attentively, "if a boy who had resigned to not having a future or a life could discover the use of fuinjutsu and capitalize on it, then everyone can do it too," it wasn't an insult to Naruto, rather it was a gold star since he had set the lower limit for fuinjutsu students and he was also the present highest limit; it was one of the reasons the ninja of Wave respected him, "I've been told you have all brushed through fuinjutsu and its meaning in the academy syllabus, am I correct?" they nodded, "good. Now after finding out about the numerous dangers and the equally numerous advantages in fuinjutsu…who wants to leave?" he raised her right hand for silence before the noise erupted, "it won't be held against you if you chose not to study seal work anymore; your free to leave," it was possible to be a seal master with minimum injuries from his work, but those were the seal masters that chose to follow after what had already been laid down, not what they wanted to create.

Em seemed to have underestimated the students drive to learn seals; they had each, at one point or the other, after finding out about Naruto, read about seals by themselves and they were very much aware of the dangers it had. No student left the class after thirty minutes of waiting. Em clapped her hands together,

"Well then that's good. Before coming here leader-sama told me he had great faith in this class, he was positive great minds and great discoveries would come from here. Is his faith misplaced?"

"No, sensei!" they yelled,

"Are you going to put in your all?!" she exclaimed,

"Hai sensei!" they yelled,

"Are you all going to prove to the world that fuinjutsu isn't dead?!"

"Hai sensei!" they chorused again, this was when she smiled widely and motioned for them to be quiet, she leaned forward like she wanted to tell them a secret and they leaned to her to hear it,

"Naruto-sama has a plan to revolutionize the world with seals; he wants to create seals that would be able to transport a person through the air, or even teleport people to and from other villages. He has so many plans and so many ideas it is overwhelming him, I can see it. He needs your help," when she had said the last part they began murmuring to themselves; it seemed too farfetched that their leader would need help, but they were silenced by Em's nod, "yes, he wants to work with capable people to bring about this revolution. Do you think you can lend a hand?"

"Hai sensei," they nodded with fire in their eyes,

"Good, now your first lesson is to know what fuinjutsu is and also know all of the basic strokes by heart. I trust you all have the 'Fuinjutsu: Level one by Namikaze Minato-sama," they all nodded and brought out the books, the woman turned around and picked up a piece of chalk, she then started writing on the board the numerous basic seal strokes…

 _At the same time,_

 _Training ground fourteen,_

 _Outer Wave,_

 _Wave country,_

Team Kakashi and team Naruto with Yakumo were currently leisurely sitting under a tree, idly chatting amongst themselves as they waited for the Wave leader to come; Kakashi was sitting on a tree branch reading one of his many perverse books.

Naruto's first three students had been regularly visiting Wave to receive training from their blonde sensei, most times their visits would clash with the Wave leader training his own students but that wasn't necessarily a bad thing; it gave the older students time to find out about the younger students and vice versa. The plan was usually that Sakura and Sai would stay back in Konoha to train with their different teachers but it seemed they wanted to come to Wave as well. Hinata and Yakumo were sitting with Kam, Noriko, Sai and Sakura recounting a time in Konoha during one of Naruto's training sessions, the younger students eyes widened in surprise,

"He made you guys do that?"

Yakumo nodded and tugged the bandages around her left hand down to reveal the multiple pine-like marks on her palm, "yup, and for good reason too, it makes me know how to fight outside my centre of gravity and it also helps me trust my chakra," Hinata agreed with her, "senbon balancing isn't as bad as it seems, they'll heal up soon,"

"It's a mental thing; if you see yourself doing it then you're going to be able to do it,"

"Sensei hasn't told us about senbon balancing," Noriko muttered,

"Yet," Yakumo piped up,

Meanwhile Inari was lying on his back with his fingers laced together, snoozing off while Sasuke twirled a kunai in his fingers, alternating between activating his sharingan and switching it off.

They all looked up when they heard slow footsteps walk to them, it was Naruto and he was in full combat uniform, "sorry I'm late, Tsunami-san mixed up my laundry and I had to go and get new ones because I couldn't wait for her to get them organised again," he was in a long sleeved back shirt with a thick blue stripe going down his shoulders to his hands, which were free. He also had on a pair of ankle length black shinobi pants the DARK ninja usually wear on missions with his shuriken and kunai pouch on his left thigh and right hip respectively. He also had on black sandals, black forearm and shin protectors. Over his torso was a blue Wave jounin flak jacket and a blue banded forehead protector wrapped around his forehead. Despite this they could vaguely see that it didn't hinder his movements, he probably tested it out in the store he bought the clothes.

He nudged his toe against Inari and the boy snorted away, snapping to his feet when he saw that it was Naruto, "I'll be teaching you guys how to-"

"Ano, Naruto-sensei…?" he paused and raised his eyebrows at Hinata, he hummed and motioned for her to speak, "well…we were thinking…"

"We want a team spar against you," Sasuke spoke up as the Hyuuga princess hesitated,

"Yeah, me, Hinata and Sasuke against you," Yakumo said,

"Can I ask why?" Naruto replied,

"WE just want to see how far we've come, as your first students," Hinata said to him.

Naruto looked at each of his older students for a minute then to his younger students; he could see that they really wanted to see him face off against his older students, probably to see what his training regimen could do as well as see him fighting. The seal master nodded and rolled his wrists, "what are the rules?"

Yakumo pumped her fist in the air but it was Sasuke that spoke up first, "no trap seals; contact traps or anything,"

"No sleeping chain and blue iron bubble," Hinata continued,

"No Kyuubi and we don't want you holding back, sensei," the female artist finished,

Naruto smirked at them, "that's an awful lot you've taken away. I agree," he also wanted to see how this would end, "no holding back," he walked backwards to the centre of the training ground and motioned for them to come at him,

"Let's watch how this ends ne?" Kakashi murmured and sat upright, he also wanted to know what Naruto could do against his students, Sakura and Sai nodded and focused in on the fight.

"You know what to do," Hinata muttered to the two beside her,

"Hai," they barked and Sasuke and the purple haired heiress rocketed to Naruto, Yakumo stayed back and unsealed a painting set, a canvas and a brush, she wasted no time to begin painting. Naruto smirked at their plan, already impressed, and the hand-to-hand fight began.

He raised his left forearm as Hinata yelled out a war cry and her fist smashed against it, the attack reverberated through the seal augmented black metal and escaped through Naruto's feet (think like a lightning conductor), the ground broke apart violently under him but he didn't retreat like expected, the blonde leaned away when Sasuke swiped at him with his own fist, using his left shin protector to meet the blow and that was when he decided to enter the offensive. His pointer and middle finger, laced with chakra, reached around the blow but the Uchiha, with his sharingan spinning wildly in his sockets, leaped away and Hinata met the attack with her own laced fingers. Naruto's tree root seals flared to life and held him in place as gusts of wind blew violently around him and Hinata; he spun on his left heel and used his right heel to kick the girl across her face. She burst into smoke on impact and his sensory seals warned him in time for him to slide to his right from a pair of bandaged hands that reached out of the ground. His eyes widened when Sasuke appeared behind him and punched his back, his tree root seals held him in place; he used the momentum of the surprise attack to swing his now earth clumped right leg around and nail Sasuke at his side. A kunai slid out of both of his sleeves to deflect the jyuuken strikes Hinata began sending to him, his eyes twinkled when he saw a small opening in her form but before he could capitalize on it his body was peppered with hundreds of 'Water drills'. He burst into chakra smoke to reveal a log of wood in his place.

"How…?" Sasuke's eyebrow twitched in irritation and his two tomoe sharingan tracked a paper shuriken, he bent down away from it but a hand from the ground erupted and caught his neck, the Uchiha's eyes widened in shock before his face met the hard, unforgiving ground. Naruto leaped out of the ground and Sasuke rolled away from him as an axe kick cracked the ground.

The seal master's taijutsu style demanded he knew any and every form of attack possible, so that he would be able to think up a way to defend and counter. It wasn't easy to do with the hundreds of fighting styles and millions of possible attacks but it was relatively easy to do so against his students because he was the one that had taught them most of what they knew, even the jutsu they were using.

Hinata began flashing through a short set of hand seals, _"Earth release: Mud balls,"_ she took in a deep breathe began spitting out mud balls at her teacher. Naruto's shield spiralled into sight and the balls of mud bounced against it. He spun away from the last few and muttered his own jutsu,

" _Water release: Cold tidal wave,"_ a thick jet of water erupted from his mouth and snaked toward the Hyuuga girl, she leaped above the attack and it followed after her stubbornly. Naruto cut the attack off to dodge the kunai swipe Sasuke gave him, he flipped backwards and when his eyes were level he slapped his left hand on the ground, the chakra seal beam glowed ominously and a pillar of earth rose from the ground like a snake with a drill in its mouth. The earth attack squealed down at Sasuke but Hinata used the boy as a spring board, she grit her teeth as her chakra coated her whole fist and she punched the attack. Dust erupted around them and Naruto used a wind jutsu to clear it away. He noticed that he was now alone, besides team seven and Kakashi watching from the side lines. His ears twitched for any sound but his sensory seals were all over the place, telling him that his three students were there but not there at the same time, "so you finally decided to join, Yakumo," he said and slapped his palms together, a loud click resonated around the training ground, _"kai!"_ the air visibly broke apart to reveal Hinata smashing her fist into his stomach.

All the air in his lungs blew out and he felt a harsh heel meet his back courtesy of Sasuke, Yakumo tied it all together by holding her painting brush against his neck, a sharp blade glinted in the light.

"You lose sensei," she said with a proud smirk,

"Have I?" the blonde said, his face was to the ground, spread eagle. As if on cue the ground rumbled and five stone arms burst from the grounds, which was when they noticed that his chakra beam seal was _still_ ominously glowing. Two of the fists punched Sasuke clean under his chin and two hit Hinata on her unprotected belly, the last one grabbed Yakumo by her neck, lifting her off the ground.

Naruto got his feet back under him but made sure his left palm was still on the ground; he used his other hand to dust his shoulder before he brought Yakumo down and poked the nerve cluster on her neck, summarily knocking her out. He got back upright and he threw his right hand to where Sasuke was still trying to get his legs steady after the earth shattering blows; three snake ropes burst from his wrist and speed tied the boy up, he motioned for them to come back and he poked the nerve cluster again, knocking the boy out as well. He looked over his shoulder and snapped his fingers for the ropes to converge on Hinata. The girl had her byakugan blazing as she poked and jabbed the three semi-sentient ropes. She crossed her forearms when Naruto suddenly appeared in front of her with his knee hitting her arms, it was all in slow motion as he flipped behind her but at the same time burst into chakra smoke,

"A clone!?" before she could drop her weight seals her leg was grabbed by a snake rope and the others used this opportunity to also wrap around her, squeezing the air out of her. This was when Naruto walked out from somewhere behind her and pushed her, she fell back like a tree. He cocked his head to the side silently and held a kunai under her chin,

"I win," he frowned slightly, "you should have dropped your weights immediately," he commanded a single snake rope to retrieve Sasuke and Yakumo, poking their necks again to wake them up, "you should have used your cursed seal and you should have used your beast chakra," he scratched his chin and the trio began perspiring on their foreheads, "either you three underestimated me or…"

"Sensei we're sorry!" the Kurama princess screamed as torrents of tears flowed out from her eyes,

"You were overconfident…" he finished as if he wasn't interrupted, "I was certain I had squashed that out of you three," Yakumo kept on crying, blubbering her apologies, "training has tripled, for all of you," he spoke to even his own genin team, "let's start with bucket balancing on beds of senbon," he grinned at them ominously and the six students gulped, "while I throw shuriken at you,"

They all gulped.

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 **Water release: Cold tidal wave: this is a simple C rank jutsu. It is mainly made up of loosely packed water that are compacted together in a way it loose and feels cold but it remains mostly liquid rather than solid. This fact also makes it seem like it is controllable but the user is only able to throw it in a direction, even up for instance, and it would keep going until it reached a point it would fall down. This is the jutsu's intimidating factor since the user can also craft it in any shape he wants before he spits it out, Naruto chose to change it into a snake since Sasuke was always shaken when he sees snakes (read: not scared). This jutsu originates from Hidden Chill but the creator is still unknown till this day.**

 **So? What do you think?**

 **Not sure how I did personally since this is kinda the first time in a while I'm continuing this story but I think I did ok. Tell me what you think, if you all don't mind.**

 **Some might be disappointed that I didn't kill Nagato but look at it from Naruto's point of view; he could have just taken the eyes but who would he give with such short time to master, certainly not him seeing as he is also still learning, despite his accomplishments. Its best left with someone that knows how to fully harness it, hence why Nagato is still alive.**

 **I'm honestly not sure when I would be able to fit in another Naruto-Temari scene with all the stuff I have planned for this story. Maybe subtle stuff, not sure.**

 **You all remember Itachi? He's showing up in the next chapter but what he'll be doing might surprise you. We also get to see more into two, maybe three, of the village leaders fully allied to Naruto. Who can guess who they are?**

 **Well I think that's all I have to say…**

 **Don't forget to drop a review please,**

 **See you all on the flip side,**

 **Foy.**


	22. Chapter 22

**Yo!**

 **I've had this story in m computer since the infamous charger problem but it was at 4k words and my word limit for this story is 10 to 11k words.**

 **Service isn't too good here and I had to really run around just to put this story up, so I didn't really get the chance to PM reply those that reviewed. So…**

 **Shout out to 'SaboteurSupreme': Thank you dude! I appreciate it**

 **To 'ashenerden': I apologise for the misspelling. I blame myself for not looking up the spelling before hand; this is Zabuza all over again**

 **To 'Alligator9': to be honest…I was crossing my fingers so no one would ask this but…you have so I need to come up with a clever,** _ **ingenious**_ **way of saying I don't have any map reference…Oh look a shoe! *dives into a bush* seriously though, I didn't think it was too important then so I just went with the flow.**

 **I hope you enjoy reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it,**

 **Don't forget to drop a review when you're done! Thank you.**

 **Enjoy…**

CHAPTER 22

Naruto looked at himself in the mirror and ran a hand through his uncontrollable pale blonde hair; his eyes trailed over the seal tattoos over his body that wound down to his arms and ended on his fingers. He stifled a yawn and blindly took the black shirt with blue stripes winding down the arms from the woman in his room.

"Tsunami-san I assure you Inari would be perfectly safe with us," Naruto yawned again and scratched his cheek, he rolled his shoulders experimentally and put on the jounin flak jacket. He looked into the mirror at the distraught mother and strained for an understanding smile; the woman had arrived in his room an hour before dawn, as per the norm, with a batch of freshly laundered clothes for him to wear, she had used this chance to implore for Naruto to drop Inari from the mission they were about to go on,

"You have to understand, Naruto-sama, Inari-kun…he's my child…my only son," she looked down slightly with dull eyes and clasped her hands behind her,

Naruto furrowed his eyebrows, "he wouldn't be going alone," he strapped on his kunai and shuriken holsters and stepped into his shinobi sandals, strapping them on and making sure they were secure before he started making his bed,

"I can handle that…" Tsunami muttered as she made to drop the stack of clothes in her arms on the desk to make the bed, but Naruto stopped her,

Naruto slowly stood straight and cocked his head to the side, before he said, "Tsunami-san, please have a seat," he walked up to the woman and took the batch of laundry off her hands, placing them on his messy bed; the woman nodded slightly and sat down on the edge of the bed, watching as Naruto looked through his wardrobe and pulled out a backpack that still had the store tag on it, the blonde used his teeth to pull it off. He then began to idly organise the bag with what she could only guess were ninja necessities; spare clothes, two blankets, weapons, ration bars, scrolls, some notes and pencils, and some other stuff she couldn't keep track of, "Inari is a growing boy, he has so much potential as a shinobi and so far his development is only limited by staying in Wave,"

"But-but Naruto-sama-"

"He once told me that one of his dreams was to make his father proud," Naruto stood up and dropped his bag on the bed while he went into his bathroom and returned with his toothbrush and three boxes of soap, "Tazuna-san told me that Kaiza-san fought for Wave and died for Wave, he is by all definitions a shinobi and a stellar one, despite the fact he didn't have any formal training. He was loyal to a cause to the very end and Inari wants to be like _him_ ," he then turned to the window and began unsealing his forearm and shin protectors from the storage seals on his forearms and shins, making it look like they melted out of his skin and out of his clothes, it was very impressive. "I never had any experience with reliable parent figures when I was growing up, so pardon me if I can't fully sympathize with you but I understand exactly where you're coming from,"

"You do?" she asked,

He nodded and sat down beside her, "I have three students in Konoha, much longer than I have had students in Wave, that means that there are three people that look up to me for proper guidance and it is this guidance that they make use of on missions. Every time I watch or they tell me they're leaving for a mission I always worry that what I've taught them wasn't good enough to make a difference. I worry that they would die on a mission or get severely wounded just because I might have not instructed them properly. Even though I'm _yet_ to hear that I can't help but worry. Do you understand what I'm saying?" she looked into his deep blue eyes before she looked down to her hands and nodded, "Inari is an exceptional genin, even though his academy results don't show that; Jiriaya of the Sannin was a class clown but now look at him. He needs space to grow and you are doing a wonderful job raising him but he needs a little more freedom," he smiled lightly and pat her shoulder once as she nodded,

"I understand…just please Naruto-sama; I want my boy to come back alive,"

"I promise. Besides, he'll be with me, my personal guards, Yumi-dono and her guards as well as his team. That's nine highly ranked shinobi and two genin, plus Inari, making three,"

Looking back on it now it seemed more of overkill for a simple diplomatic mission to Kumo but Yumi had insisted that she wanted to travel to Hidden Lightening as well. His personal guards consisted of the highest ranked in their generation of DARK shinobi; baboon, raven, eagle and leopard, Mole was the captain. Baboon and leopard were a short ranged specialists who just so happened to be twins, one made use of a bow staff the other made use of trench knives; they were hand-to-hand specialists. Raven was a genjutsu master that was able to cast A rank genjutsu that were incredibly difficult to break; he was also the deputy captain. Eagle was a long range fighter that specialised in recon; he was also a ninjutsu expert. This wasn't to say they didn't specialise in other fields; they were all masters of stealth, silence, assassination and espionage.

The blonde leader stood up and shrugged on his backpack, "you can go and wave him off if you want,"

"No, no, he'll think I'm embarrassing him,"

Naruto laughed a little, "no, you need it and he needs it, trust me,"

"Hai, Naruto-sama,"

She followed after him, making sure to close the door, and both trudged down the stairs. Naruto began to tie on his forehead protector on his right arm and nodding greetings to the servants that were throwing open the windows and dusting the chairs. He opened the door and they silently walked down the waking streets to outer Wave; the gatekeepers there snapped to attention and Naruto sent back a lax two fingered salute as the invisible Fuin-genjutsu bubble allowed him to leave after recognising him by his tattoo and his chakra. The walk to the seaport took about thirty minutes.

He could see his genin team sitting on a bench, watching the sailors scurry around to get the ship ready, he smiled to them,

"Morning sensei!" they saluted, standing straight; their own backpacks sat at their feet,

"Morning," he looked around, "has Yumi-dono arrived yet?"

"I'm right behind you, Naruto-dono," he looked over his shoulder, freeing Tsunami to go and worry over her son while he exchanged pleasantries with the Hidden Chill leader; she was in different clothing, probably her own combat uniform. She wore a sleeveless white shirt that went down to her mid-thigh and deep blue shorts with white knee socks. On her arms were long fingerless gloves that stopped a little above her elbow, with a white scarf wrapped around her neck. Her heel length blonde hair was in a loose bun held together by two chopsticks and her pale cheeks were rosy from the chilly morning wind blowing through Wave; she was used to enduring worse but there were things her body couldn't help but show,

"How was your hotel room, Yumi-dono?" he asked,

"Excellent. Though just Yumi is fine, no need for formalities between us," a small smile twitched on Naruto's lips and he nodded, "only between us,"

"Likewise, it's never easy being constantly reminded that I'm accountable to hundreds of lives,"

The young woman chuckled and looked over his shoulder at his backpack, "I see you decided not to seal your things," not exactly but close enough,

"This is a learning mission for my students as much as it's a diplomatic mission for us," the captain of the ship marched up to him and offered to take his bag, "its fine, I can carry it myself. After you, Yumi," he led the blonde woman up the board walk and into the ship.

The ship they had entered was specially ordered to be constructed by Naruto to transport tourists to Wave, though now there were two more to serve that function so he was able to us the ship for the purpose of exposing his students to the wider world as well as transport them as close as Lightning country as possible, which was at the borders of Hidden Marsh, in Swamp country, where they would proceed by foot to their intended destination. The ship was fairly large; it was able to easily contain and cater for fifty to eighty people, all with their rooms depending on whether they were a family or paid extra for individual rooms. There was a cafeteria, a wide deck with various binoculars for the passengers, it wasn't the fanciest of boats but it could boast of hygiene and quality of service, with the dozens of servants rushing to cater after the needs of the passengers, now though there were only half a dozen servants on board and a dozen sailors just to maintain the ship; Naruto had specifically told them to leave the bulk of the security to him and his comrades.

The young leader sighed quietly and closed his eyes, savouring the fresh breeze that blew on his face from the wide ocean as he leaned on the railing of the ship; Yumi looked at him curiously but allowed the boy to his thoughts. Noriko and Kam were running around the ship, diving down the stairs and disappearing inside after DARK operative leopard motioned for them to follow him to find their rooms, Mole was busy with the other three, giving them their posts as well as trying to organise the night and day patrol rotation with the captain of the Chill ANBU operatives. Daku blurred onto the ship beside Naruto and Yumi only flinched slightly in surprise, but Naruto kept his eyes closed; the dark shadow fell on his right knee and waited for Naruto to acknowledge him, some of the other black ops operatives watched on as the DARK commander waited for the Wave leader to address him. Naruto pushed off the railing a little and stood up straight, his blue eyes looking down at his loyal servant,

"At ease, Daku," the seal creation snapped to his feet and nodded silently,

"Are you certain you do not want me to come as well, Naruto-sama?" Daku asked,

"Wave still needs someone to protect it in my absence, someone that my shinobi can listen to in my place," the leader said simply, "besides, we're protected enough," he smiled lightly and waved at the few Wave inhabitants that were awake and had found out that their leader was leaving on a trip, they were mostly chunin who had been put on border patrol for that week and fish sellers that almost always woke up early.

Daku hummed to himself and nodded, "as long as you're sure, Naruto-sama," he was about to leap off the boat but Naruto quickly grabbed his left forearm and the dark shadow leaned in to listen to what the blonde wanted to say,

"I trust you not to let me down, Daku. I have a list of things I want done concerning the coming battle, make sure it gets done," he whispered this and from the way the boys usually warm blue eyes steeled over Daku knew that whatever it was not to be taken lightly, he let go of the dark shadows arm and Daku flickered away to the leaders office, but not before he gave Naruto a confirming nod.

Naruto turned to Yumi and blinked in confusion when she openly stared at him, trying to decipher what had just happened. The blonde shook his head and led the woman downstairs to her designated room.

The DARK operatives and Chill ANBU exchanged questioning looks before Mole snapped her fingers and they marched to their posts. The Wave leader instructed the captain to set sail and they began their slow but careful journey to the land of swamps, where they would disembark and trek to the land of lightning.

After he had dropped his bag in his room, Naruto told his students to meet him at the deck immediately. The boy was sitting on the railing facing the general direction of where they were heading to while his three students were sitting down in front of him with their legs crossed. They waited for him to begin their first lesson and he did,

"When you are travelling to a place you have only heard rumours and stories of you need to be well prepared to face the unexpected; this is what common sense would tell you. It is good to be knowledgeable of the place before you actually go there so that you can be even more ready to go there, from the customs, to their beliefs, to even their slangs, you must know as much as possible about where you are going before you get there, especially as a shinobi going on a mission to this place, joint mission or not. Or else you will either make a complete fool of, disgracing the name of your village or you will be taken advantage of and led into a trap, allied country or not,"

"But sensei," Noriko asked as he tentatively raised his hand, Naruto nodded for him to continue, "wont it be counterproductive if an allied country leads us into a trap,"

"It is, yes, but you need to keep in mind that every country, no matter how big or small, believes in strength. If they perceive that they can take our strength then they most likely will,"

Kam raised her hand and spoke when Naruto prompted her to, "what if the allied villages have mutual history and a strong connection?"

Naruto smiled and opened his arms, "then there is nothing to fear. Take the Minor Six alliance; we all have bad history and bad reputation in common, so we chose to ally because no one else wanted to see how we have changed. As long as we respect the sovereignty of each ally and provide what we stipulated in our alliance agreement then we have no problems. Why do you think we have so many allied ninjas and civilians in the country, or in any of the other villages for that matter?"

"Because we trust them, Naruto-sensei," Inari piped up before Kam could say anything,

"Exactly but also because we respect them as well. It all comes down to mutual benefit," the three nodded and Yumi, who was sitting on a deck chair a little bit away from them but was still facing them, also nodded in agreement, "back to knowing your destination before you go there; I can't boast that I have been all over the continent but I can boast that I'm fairly well-travelled," despite my age, he added mentally, "with that said, I know a bit about a few places," an understatement, "so I want you all to find out as much about the land of lightning as possible from these books," he unsealed three _thick_ books from his shoulder and tossed each genin one, the book was titled 'The History of the Elemental Nations: A detailed analysis of human life and the evolution of chakra' by Shimura Danzo and Sarutobi Hiruzen. He didn't bother suppressing the smile as the genin got swirly eyed from looking at the title, "it's actually really interesting," Noriko was even struggling to carry his book, how the heck was Naruto able to carry three at once?

"But sensei-" Inari groaned but a sharply raised eyebrow from his teacher silenced him, "fine…"

Naruto laughed, "Don't look so sad guys. Alright, how about this; if you read about lightning country, and only lightning country, I will teach you a trick to even out your chakra control," they groaned even louder but this didn't reduce the blonde boys mood as he shooed them away.

As the genin scampered away to the available deck chairs, Yumi approached Naruto and leaned on the railing beside him, "I don't envy them," she said abruptly,

"What-"

"So what will you be doing to entertain yourself?" she asked quickly and the boy furrowed his eyebrows at her before he shrugged,

"I was about to draw the horizon but…" he eyed her suspiciously, "I think you feel it is my obligation to keep you entertained," she actually nodded when he said this, "you do know that I didn't even ask you to come with us,"

"I really just wanted to see how persuasive you are up close, seeing as you singlehandedly got the Minor country/village alliance allied with Konoha, Suna, Ame and Kiri by yourself,"

Naruto turned around and perched his forearms on the rails, leaning forward and she mirrored his posture, "Zabuza, Haku and Daku helped me get the last alliance," he muttered,

She nudged his shoulder with hers, "but you got the first three right?"

He nodded, "Konoha was just a convenience so Fire country won't come after me and Ame was because they have some of the strongest ninjas on the planet," a mental image of Nagato and Pein came to him. He had received reports that the village was still being rebuilt and that Nagato was recuperating slowly. The Rain ninjas were being rallied that their first ally in years, Wave, led by the blonde boy that had saved them from being crushed by rocks, needed their help in the oncoming battle. It was something they were looking forward to doing, mostly just to repay the favour.

"What about Suna?"

Naruto was silent for a few seconds before he replied, "at first it was because I rejected a marriage proposal, so that bad feelings wont fester between us, then it was because Suna was more reliable with Gaara as leader,"

"He's a nice kid," the thirteen year old agreed with this point, "he doesn't need to say it but he idolizes you," Naruto looked at her in surprise and she quickly nodded, "yup, when he visited Wave he was either with you or in his hotel room, probably sleeping. You can know a lot about a person by looking at his eyes," the boy looked back ahead at the sea,

"Gaara is a good leader,"

She pursed her lips and said, "And you mentioned something about a marriage proposal. Was it between you and…" he waited for her to continue and she did after a wide grin spread on her face, "him…?"

The boy choked and firmly grasped the railing before he could topple over into the water, "what the f-"

She quietly giggled into her hands, her pale cheeks red and her eyes glazed with tears, "no need to be ashamed, Naruto-kun," she drew out his name teasingly,

He managed to get himself back in order, "it wasn't with Gaara,"

She didn't believe him, especially with the playful punch she gave his forearm, "then who would be interested enough to give you a formal marriage proposal?"

He looked at her with molten fire boiling in his eyes but her smug expression didn't leave until he called the name of the person that had been proposed to marry him, which he let down, "Temari,"

For the briefest of moments a frown flickered on her face before it was replaced with a coy smirk, "is that why she spends most of her time in your country?"

He shrugged, "maybe, I declined the proposal when I was asked, her decision to be Suna's ambassador to Wave is a bit _strange_ but the fact remains that she is great company," he had unknowingly gone on a few dates with her, chalking it as friends eating together, and he found out that she had entertaining stories of past missions. He said this with a straight face,

"So…are you going to marry her?" the older blonde asked,

He shrugged again, "I don't plan on marrying anyone for a very long time, if ever, but she's the first to come to mind if I am going to marry," he looked at her from the corner of his eyes, "why are you interested with my love life?"

"No reason," she chirped and bumped his shoulder with hers.

The next day Naruto assembled his students and quizzed them on what they had read, "what's the reason Kumo residents mostly have lightning affinity chakra?"

"Because the high altitude they live in evolved their chakra," Kam answered; it the closest explanation the book could give, and she mentally celebrated as Naruto nodded. He kept asking them questions, with Kam answering the most and Inari answering the least, but enough to satisfy the Kage level Wave leader.

After a few rounds of questions, Naruto stopped to reward his students, "think of your chakra as a river flowing down to a waterfall, this waterfall is how your chakra spreads around your body and the river is the source. Some books say that the size of the chakra depends on the amount of control a person has but that isn't always true; the Sandaime Hokage had perfect chakra control and he was ranked the third largest chakra well. The Shodaime Uzukage had three times as much chakra as me and he had perfect control of it," Mole, who was the one that was to stay around Naruto that day, mouth dropped open in shock; it was crazy to think that a man with a larger source of chakra had that much control, especially since Naruto had more chakra than everyone she knew, "there are a lot more people I can name; Hatake Sakumo, Uchiha Fugaku, Namikaze Minato, Senju Tsunade, among many others. Although the size of the chakra capacity gives a small clue on how well the person is able to control it, it shouldn't be the only determinant, especially when you visualize the flow of the river, the source of your chakra, flowing easier instead of through a pin sized hole. The first thing to keep in mind is patience, it won't magically come to you but it will, and the last is practice,"

Inari impatiently crossed his arms, "what's the trick sensei?"

Naruto ignored the boys impatience and replied, "it depends on the affinity but seeing as you all are water affinity, with Kam being wind as well, we can all do it together," he left out how he was able to use each nature transformation. He snapped his fingers and Leopard phased into reality behind them with a large bucket of water in his hands and he poured the water on the genin, soaking them to the bone. Naruto closed his eyes as he smiled widely, "the trick is called 'Urgency' and you use your chakra to dry yourselves," he chuckled at their outraged squeals, "the trick is to choose a path on your clothes to concentrate the flow of the water off your clothes," he looked at his wrist and said, "and be quick about it, the temperatures dropping,"

He reached to his right and a bucket of water was placed in his hand. he poured it over his head and the water soaked through his hair and clothes completely. He silently raised a finger, indicating that they watch, and their eyes widened as three miniature rivers of water crawled down his front and two down his back, the water slithered down his pants and pooled at his feet. This went on for thirty seconds before his clothes were completely dry.

He made to leave but he said a few more parting words, "no wringing your clothes and no leaving this spot. Good luck,"

"Damn it, sensei," Noriko moaned as a chill passed through him.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Footsteps echoed through the empty passageway leading to one of the many hidden places in the leader's tower in Hidden Sound. The taller of the two, a pale, black haired man looked ahead as he asked his question, "how has the project I assigned you come along, Kabuto-kun?"

"Very well, Orochimaru-sama,"

"Details," the pale man simply said and Kabuto delved through the months of research he had solely done since the day the other two Sannin and Naruto had bested them. The old man nodded to everything his assistant said silently until he cut in, "and how many samples have you collected,"

"It was very difficult-"

"I didn't ask about the difficulty, I asked you how many samples you've gotten," Orochimaru said this in a low, intimidating hiss, "now, give me a number,"

Kabuto gulped and muttered, "one hundred and seventy two…Orochimaru-sama," he waited for the reprimand with high shoulders and low head but when he didn't receive any he looked up at his master and his eyes widened at the bright gleam he saw in the man's yellow, reptilian eyes,

"You have done well, Kabuto-kun,"

The bespectacled teens lips wobbled slightly as he tried to control his stammer, "th-thank you, sir,"

The Sannin ignored the boys reply and continued as if he had not been interrupted, "how long before you acquire up to two hundred and fifty samples?"

"I have various sources and suppliers in many-"

"Kabuto-kun…" the man hissed again and his eyes flared in restrained rage as he glared at the teen from the side of his eyes, "how long?"

"One more month,"

"Perfect, just a month shy from _the_ day," they kept silently walking down the long corridor, and it was the younger scientist that broke the silence,

"Uhm…sir?" the man hummed in reply and began to idly open and close the doors that started peppering the sides of the corridor, each one contained one of his many living experiments, keeping track of their vitals as they underwent various experiments. One of the experiments was a goliath sized boy that was punching the wall furiously; the Sannin laughed quietly and closed the door, "how about Kimimaro-kun? Will he be ready to kill Naruto-kun?"

The man actually paused to scratch his chin before he kept on walking, "common sense says that an Uzumaki is never content staying in the same place, so I'm guessing that the boy is much stronger than the last time we met him. He might even have new seals and jutsu in his grasp and he might also now know how to properly fight," kami knew how many stories he had heard of Uzumaki being strong enough to destroy countries or subduing demons with their seals alone, "the truth is…I don't want Kimimaro-kun to kill Naruto-kun," he grinned evilly, "I want that honour of ending his life myself,"

Although Kabuto nodded in agreement he was a little bit sceptical of his master's plan. Unlike the Sannin, who had been staying in Sound so he could focus on fortifying the defences and his other living experiments, including Kimimaro, he had been travelling all over the continent gathering DNA samples from dead shinobi and researching on the _'Impure world resurrection'_ jutsu, mainly on ways to make the jutsu better. His ears had been on the ground as he moved about and the news he had been hearing wasn't boding to well for their plans; Naruto had allied with three major hidden villages and had revived the dying Wave country as well as allying with five other minor villages. Also adding in the villages allied to the other minor village alliance, Wave was almost too strong. Though he would applaud his master for seeing the slim chance that Naruto was, in fact, very well connected and mingled with highly ranked ninjas and countries by tasking him to retrieving as many DNA samples from powerful, but dead, ninjas. He already had a hundred ninjas within A rank and a dozen in the S rank, this alone should equal any odds Naruto raised. Not only was he gathering samples for foot soldiers but he was also told to research on ways to sustain the ninjas for as long as possible and make them have the power they had when they were still alive.

The last door the Sannin pushed open was the one he entered. They stopped and watched as Kimimaro, the red dots on his left shoulders glowing brighter than they were when he had received the Uchiha and Senju DNA, as the boy shot out two bone spikes from his palms at a dummy and one contact, the wooden creation was sucked into a transparent spinning whirlpool.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

Bells tinkered above Itachi's head as he walked into the pastry shop situated at the very edge of the red light district, barely even two more buildings before it was fully inside. The man, of course, couldn't walk about as freely as he used to when he was a through and through ninja of the leaf; only the ANBU and the jounin were aware of his presence in the village and they were incredibly suspicious of him, even after Tsunade had revealed the reason he had betrayed and killed his clan, and on who's orders he was following. He needed to place himself under a normal Henge and enhance it with his sharingan.

He also needed to get something over with and this was the place he had do it.

The S ranked man was Henge'd as a white haired, red eyed male in his late teens that had tanned skin and plain features, as plain as they get. He was in long sleeved black shirt and pants with blue boots. The ninja sighed tiredly and clenched his fists before he steeled his gaze and walked up to the counter of the pastry shop. It was apparently a slow day because the shop was bone dry. He sat down on a tall stool at the bar-style counter and not even a second later a black haired female with bright red eyes swished out of the backroom door directly in front of him. She was flawlessly beautiful, with gentle features and a bright smile that actually mad the usually stoic man's lips twitch upwards briefly. The girl, obviously in her late teens as well, clasped her hands behind her back and brought out a paper pad and pencil, as well as dusted down her bright pink apron for the multi-coloured sprinkles there.

"Hello, shinobi-san. Welcome to Senpai Pastry and Confectionaries. My name is Mizumi, what can I get you?" her eyes were closed, so he couldn't see her red eyes, as she waited for him to speak,

"I don't remember telling you I was a ninja," Itachi asked casually as he placed his forearms on the counter,

"You've got that…super ninja persona going on, anyone else would have felt it," she said it as she smiled brightly, her white teeth even shone slightly,

"I'm not a ninja,"

"Yeah, yeah, you can't lie to me," strangely enough her eyes were still closed but he had a feeling that she was still very aware of her environment, "now what can I get you?"

Itachi remained silent for a few seconds and discreetly looked around to make sure that no one was around, even the store owner, "I need…" he leaned forward and she did so as well, " a Bibi special cupcake,"

Her eyes snapped open and the three tomoe sharingan under her red contact lenses spun madly as she threw away her paper pad, grabbed Itachi by his neck and threw him through the backroom door behind her, he crashed through the sturdy wood and she laxly stepped through the wreckage as a water clone melted out of her side and locked the front door. Itachi coughed and chuckled to himself as he turned onto his belly, seeing her black sandal covered feet, his sharingan eyes, also covered by red contact lenses, slowly looked up, up the purple and white dress the beautiful teen was wearing, and straight into her own red eyes. She had her fists clenched and her face in a small snarl as she reached down and grabbed him by his shirt, hefting him up easily and raising her other fist to drive it into his face but stopping short as he started laughing,

"Who the fuck are you?"

Itachi slowly raised both of his arms in a placating motion and stopped laughing in favour of coughing gently into his fist, "you don't recognise me?"

"My sharingan can't see through your genjutsu," he laughed quietly and she shook him, "now, who the hell are you?" This was when he allowed his illusion to ripple off to reveal his real face. She dropped him abruptly and he got his feet under him as she stumbled away in horror, "Itachi-kun…"

The man was straightening out his shirt before he looked at her with slightly twitching lips, "Hai,"

Her eyes were still wide in both shock and horror as her back touched the wall, "wh-what are you doing here?" she asked quietly and managed to stand straight, her chin raised in defiance, "come to finish the job?"

Itachi sighed, "Izumi-chan-"

"Just…just-"

"Or should I call you Bibi?"

"Izumi; it was my first name and it will be my last," she said and prepared her mind to fight her former team mate.

He began to slowly walk to her but stopped when she raised her fists, as if to fight, "I'm not here to hurt you-"

"Well you did," she snapped, "you-you-you killed everyone. You killed my parents, you killed my brother, you killed Shisui and you killed the whole clan," she growled, "and you wanted to kill me,"

"I didn't want to kill you," this time he was the one that snapped, the anger in his eyes shut her up, "I never wanted to kill anyone. Shisui…he died protecting the village from Danzo and I was framed for it," the fire in his eyes lessened and he shrugged his shoulders weakly, "but I won't deny killing the clan; I did that on the elders order,"

She frowned and her eyes watered, "why did you obey them? Why didn't you report it to Sandaime-sama?"

Itachi shrugged again, "the Sandaime knew about Danzo's plans and supported them. Our clan was planning a coup for his seat and Shisui wanted to hypnotize everyone in the clan with his _katoametsukami_ but Danzo found out somehow and stole one of his eyes. He kidnapped you and ordered me to eradicate our clan; if I went against the order they would have killed you and tortured my brother to death," he told her everything as more tears fell from her eyes. He told her of his counterplan to protect the village from the Akatsuki and how he had been defeated by Wave country, "do you understand, Izumi-chan? I would never want to hurt you or Shisui,"

On the day he had been ordered to kill his clan, Izumi, then called Bibi, had been ganged up by several ninjas as she was sick with a severe food poisoning in the hospital. She wasn't aware that a Yamanaka had altered her memory for her to think that it was Itachi that had attacked her and attempted to kill her. On another day, if she had been at a hundred percent she would have turned the ninjas into bloody smears on the ground; that day she had been burdened with the sickness and weak from throwing up for most part of the night.

Izumi Uchiha was one of the best ninjas to ever come out of the Uchiha clan, along with her teammates Itachi and Shisui. They had even created a four part jutsu together to show their bond as a team and their overall skill. She was the teams spy master, with the best Henge and chakra control over her male counterparts; she was fully capable of sneaking in and out of the T&I with no one the wiser. After she had been 'betrayed' by Itachi, she had retreated to the shadows for several years, her resolve as a ninja broken and her heart in pieces. It was only recently she had gotten control of her emotions enough to find a sustainable job as a baker, which wasn't unpredictable seeing as her second passion, with being a ninja the first, was baking. During her days of silence and hiding she had changed her name over thirty seven times and her face, not even using a Henge but at the same time never turning her doujutsu off unless she was sleeping. This was possibly the first time she had been found out; not even the many ROOT ninjas sent out after her could get a definite scent of her.

Izumi breathed in deeply, her hands shaking, _'I should have known Itachi-kun won't harm me,'_ she closed her eyes tightly, "how did you find me?"

This time he smiled at her a little and took a step forward, "tracking seal on your scalp," she wanted to face palm at letting this fly over her head; the scalp was one of the oldest places to hide a tracking seal, as strange as that sounded,

She laughed a little, "idiot," even though she had been in the shadows, watching as events unravelled in Konoha, from the Konoha exams to the advisors execution, to even the day the Kyuubi jinchuriki revealed his position as leader of Wave, she had never once been found out.

"I wanted to get this off my chest and clear things up between up," she looked away with a small frown, "and…I need your help. Konoha needs your help, Izumi-chan,"

She walked to one of her three ovens and slipped on a pair of oven mitts, opening the oven door and pulling out a tray of shortcakes, "my ninja days are over, Itachi-kun, I'm…happy with this life,"

The male nodded slowly and walked to her, she tensed, as she placed the cakes on a table to cool off while she began gently laying (I forgot the word) icing on a cooler cake, she relaxed when she noticed he was just watching her professionally apply icing to the top of the cake, like he and Shisui always did when they were younger. It was a pleasant blast from the past and she smiled slightly, "have you heard what is going to happen soon?" she nodded, "then you know the world needs your skills one more time, then we can both retire," she froze briefly, her eyes widening briefly as she turned to Itachi and he looked back at her with his equally activated sharingan to confirm that he was going to retire soon. She quickly turned back to what she was doing, "I'm still terminally ill and the world still hates me but I want to make a final statement before I go out of active duty that I will always be with the light, protecting it from the dark," she didn't answer him, just lowered her head slightly, "I want to end my career protecting what I love,"

He waited for her to speak and she opened her mouth to do so, "I don't love Konoha anymore, I don't love anyone anymore. Everyone I loved died years ago,"

The male S rank felt his heart shatter as he heard this and closed his eyes with a sigh before he opened them and he placed a hand on her shoulder, she shuddered to a stop as she mechanically stopped designing her cakes, "you and I know that's a lie,"

"Itachi-kun…please, just-just stop-"

"You've always liked lying, Izumi-chan," he felt her shoulders shake as he slowly placed his other hand on her hands,

"P-p-please…" she closed her eyes tightly as she allowed herself to be turned so she would face him,

"I want you to tell me the truth," Itachi said as he gently placed the strands of her hair between her eyes over her left ear, "that you don't love anyone anymore,"

"I-I-I do-do-don't-" the words stuck in her throat as she looked straight into his eyes, the way he placed both of his hands on her hands, almost shyly, and held them between them, "I-Itachi-kun…please…" the feelings she had been suppressing for years, the one she had been killing since the day she had been kidnapped came pouring back. Her face heated up and her tongue tied as she tried to make coherent thought,

"I haven't lied to myself since we were kids; I love you, Izumi-chan," it felt like a bolt of lightning had been stabbed into her heart as her breathe hitched,

He stepped forward and she instinctively bent her head so he could gently place his lips on her forehead, tears poured from her eyes as more and more memories flashed through her mind, tearing apart the heart she had so painstakingly fixed. He brought her into a strong hug as sobs wracked through her but she shook her head and gently pushed him away with her mitten protected hands, "p-please, Itachi-kun, j-just…go," he was about to say something else but she cut him off, "please…I need time,"

The male teen couldn't help but allow the sadness he felt enter his eyes briefly before he quickly replaced it with a small smile, "take all the time you need," his shoulder wafted passed hers as he walked past her and she didn't turn to see him off.

The bell rang as he left the shop.

Losing one's emotions was the first thing that their broken team had been told as they entered the ANBU black ops. That these emotions would be their death if they allowed it to control them, even for the shortest of moments. There were days Izumi cried at having her heart destroyed by the one and only person she ever felt anything for. Now, she realized that her experience before he defected were altered memories. The teen fell on her knees as more and more tears fell from her eyes, she hugged herself and sobbed heavily, crying for all the days she cursed her crush for destroying her life and killing their clan. When they were still kids they would sometimes escape the clan compounds just to buy a cupcake from an Akimichi store, they would buy many of these cakes and climb the Hokage monument to watch the sunset. Shisui would stand on the Nidaimes head and proclaim his goal of becoming the next Hokage, while Itachi and she would watch him; their support was inaudible but still there. She and Itachi would be holding hands, unknowingly, and it was when they were seven and had become a genin team did he kiss her forehead for the first time.

Before then, she always knew Itachi was alive and she hated him for it. But, the first love is always the strongest.

She never realized when she lurched onto her feet and shot out of the shop after him.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

"Sensei?" a hum answered the meek voice of Noriko, "how old are you?"

Naruto looked at the boy from the corner of his eyes with an amusedly raised eyebrow before he looked forward again, "that, Noriko, is a secret," the team, with his DARK guards and the ninjas from Chill, were surfing on the mucky, marshy water on a special kind of speed bought created by Smoke engineers. It was similar to speed boats but it had three propellers that shot them forward with their blades lying horizontally instead of vertically, the front was pointed with reinforced steel and plastic to cut through the marsh and there were flexible glass shields around to ward off the spray of mud on them, this mud didn't stick on and leave a mark. It was a Marsh team that had come to pick them up and transport them to the village, which was one of their checkpoints before lightning country. There were two speedboats, one for the Wave ninjas and the other for the Chill ninjas.

Inari huffed and crossed his arm as he looked at his teacher with stubborn eyes, "why can't we know your age, Naruto-sensei?"

"Why do you want to know?" was the sharp question shot back to Inari but Naruto was looking at the lone female genin, whose lips were pursed tightly so she won't join in and ask for her leaders age,

She tried her possible best to keep her mouth shut but it inevitably opened, "because you look so young and your already S rank,"

"Is that all?" the blonde asked as he looked forward again, he suppressed the amused smirk as he felt Kam struggle to let out more of her thoughts to him, as well as the fact that the Marsh ninjas were trying to listen in over the loud hum of the boat,

It was Noriko, surprisingly, that spoke first, "it's also because we did some digging-"

"Oh?"

He nodded, "yes, we did some digging and found out that since you have the Kyuubi and the Kyuubi attacked Konoha thirteen years ago on your birthday. Using that logic, your thirteen seeing as you have the Kyuubi,"

"Ok, _assuming_ I'm really thirteen, would that cause any problems?"

"No," Inari interjected before Kam could speak, "you'll still be our leader and you'll still be our sensei, we just want to know if it's true," the leader waited until the boat hit a small bump, increasing the noise from the engine as it put more effort and the Marsh ninjas focused on pushing forward before he replied with a single finger to his lips.

People didn't really care about his age, choosing just to focus on what he could do, especially for them. He wanted to keep his age secret because so far people had taken him seriously, if they found out that a thirteen year old boy was a level nine and a half fuinjutsu master and the leader of a steadily developing country. They didn't need to know.

By his silent command his students chose to be silent for the rest of journey. They stopped on the docks of hidden marsh. Naruto walked up to the female Marsh leader and firmly shook her hand with a smile on both of their faces,

"Naruto-dono, how have you been?"

"I'm well. I hope our visit hasn't inconvenienced you,"

She shook her head and released his hand in favour of shaking Yumi's hand, she motioned for them to walk beside her, "no, no, I'm glad you two could visit. I understand this is your first time here, Naruto-dono," he nodded, "then, if you don't mind, allow me to give you a guide of my village. I'll have to rush it a bit, seeing as you plan on continuing your journey soon but your genin team can wait at our east gate,"

"That would be very much appreciated, Tu-dono, thank you,"

"I need to relieve myself…somewhere…"

Tu giggled and waved for a passing female chunin to come, "please, take her to a restroom to freshen up," the girl bowed to them and led the way to a restroom for the urgent Chill leader, "now, if you don't mind,"

"By all means," Naruto said.

The first place the black haired woman had showed the blonde was their hospital, where they trained their medics as well as the medics of the other five villages/country. Hidden Marsh might have been a slightly unknown village but their medical expertise was what made them known at all (and their marshes). Only the members of the alliance had the privilege of being trained in marsh to be medics, though they weren't told all of their secrets. Naruto pursed his lips as the woman guided him through the multi-story hospital, showing him the various sections from the children's section to the elderly section. She even went ahead to show him the room the alliance ninjas were being taught and he saw a few Wave ninjas in the crowd that waved at him. From there she showed him their school and proudly displayed the records of the students that passed through. Next was their training grounds, each one marshier than the next until the very last simply a brown bog of thin water, it was almost too hard for Naruto to water walk over it but very easy for the leader of the village to do so. She chose to show him her office, just in case he wanted to personally visit on his own and talk to her. Tu was genuinely a nice person to talk to throughout the tour, she might have been a little rough and her language could get crass if something went amiss in front of him but she was a nice person.

She had even allowed him in on a small secret; that she was incredibly suspicious of him the very first day they met. She had even tasked a few of her ninjas to watch him when they were in his country, not her smartest move but she had survived that long being suspicious. Strange enough, what had thrown her suspicions away was when he had personally given her a scroll of the same barrier seals around his island to her to protect her own village; this barrier had kept out more trouble from marsh monsters than her ninjas were capable of. It was a seemingly normal gesture Naruto made to his close allies in the minor alliance. He didn't think twice about it, so he didn't catch the wide eyed stare he received from the Marsh leader as he handed her the scroll in his office; he had moved ahead and was explaining to her how to apply the seals and where to apply them, even though there was an instruction manual in it. The seals didn't expose a secret backdoor, if any, to her on how to sneak into any other village, if she wanted to, but the fact that Naruto had given her the best all-elemental village encompassing defence without batting his eyes jarred something in her.

The Marsh leadership was hereditary. According to the document that formed the village, only the descendants of the first daimyos younger brother could be leader. Tu wasn't even related to the royal family, she was the protégé of the last leader, the one before her, and she had been made an honorary member as the rest of the family killed each other for his post. A war within a family. The amount of trust her sensei had put in her to give him his last name as his adopted child, his only child, shook her to the bone. The man was more focused in leading Marsh than having children, so he adopted the weakest person from the academy and trained her to take charge of the village. She didn't know his plan until he called her to his side one day as they were on a mission to Earth country, and name her as his successor. He loved his family but at the same time he hated their greed for his position. That was why he didn't step in to break up the fights, or investigate into the poisoning. She had inherited her teacher's lack of trust for those around her and she had incorrectly judged Naruto on the tailed beast inside him, and she profusely apologised to him because of it in the privacy of her office. The boy surprised her yet again by easily forgiving her and letting her know that at least he got to know his ally better.

The tour took them two hours and Tu brought Naruto in for a tight, friendly hug before she waved them away, but not before assigning three teams to escort them to lightning country. She had even taken the liberty of sending a messenger hawk to the Raikage that his guests were soon arriving. If they chose the north gate they would have been on their way to Fang, then a country later they would reach Smoke and further up north, the furthest possible, was Chill (AN: this was just…so you guys would know. The info isn't that important…)

"Well that was awfully chummy of her," Yumi casually said as she ran beside Naruto,

"She got something off her mind,"

"Mind I ask what…?"

"It's something private," he simply said. She controlled her frown as they kept running through the empty path through a forest, there was silence as they ran over lightning country's border until Mole, who was the one running behind Naruto, piped up,

"Sir, someone's coming," as if on cue, a blonde woman in a jounin flak jacket and a tanto sheathe on her back ran towards them and bowed curtly to Naruto and Yumi,

"Naruto-sama, Yumi-sama, my name is Yugito Nii and I have been sent by Raikage-sama to escort you to Kumo,"

"Just you?" Yumi asked sceptically,

Yugito nodded wand bowed deeply in apology, "he sends his sincerest of apologies, you were scheduled to meet him in a week and when he received your message he had few available ninjas to send as escorts,"

Naruto made a flippant hand gesture and walked past the other blonde, "its fine, we were even going to stop to set up camp here," he pointed at Mole and she and her team began preparing their camp, the Chill ninjas too were helping as well,

"Oh, well that's good," Yugito replied as she stayed bowed until Yumi motioned for her to be at ease,

"You're free to stay if you want," Yumi sharply looked at Naruto and asked him, remembering that he was with her, "if you don't mind,"

"She can stay if she wants, I even brought a spare blanket," he unsealed a wooden chair from his elbow and sat on it with his backpack placed on the ground, he rummaged through it and brought out a thick but soft, bright orange blanket, "I hope you don't mind the colour," he tossed her the blanket and brought out two more chairs for Yumi and Yugito to sit down as well; his students were following the Chill and wave guards make a camp, taking mental notes of what they were doing so they didn't notice the other ninjas sitting down,

Yugito bowed again as she accepted his blanket, "thank you, Naruto-sama," she really just thought that they were up for running the few miles left to Kumo and sleeping there, maybe the trip had taken a bigger toll on them than she realized. Naruto waved nonchalantly as he rummaged through his bag for his sketchpad and a pencil before he sat back and looked around for inspiration, "if you don't mind me asking, Naruto-sama," he nodded as his bright blue eyes kept searching for what to draw among the trees that's surrounded them, "do you have full control of your tailed beast?"

"The Kyuubi and I have been friends since I was a year old and we have mutual respect for each other. I'm able to handle more tails than I'm supposed to, especially because Kyuubi helps me control the chakra. He told me that before I can truly control his chakra I need to actually beat him in a fight, and I am yet to do that. So, no, I can't control all of his tails," Yugito nodded slowly and ran her hands over his blanket, "I'm assuming you can control your Bijuu chakra,"

"Hai, Naruto-sama," she replied.

She expected more from the feared and respected leader of wave country; with the way the Kumo delegation to wave had spoken about him, she expected to see the power rolling off him in waves. The only indication he was even the tiniest bit of strength was with the flawless way he unsealed three chairs from his elbow, which he had now rolled down but from the small glimpse she saw that his arm was covered in seal tattoos. Seal tattoos were a show of fuinjutsu knowledge for exclusively Uzumaki seal masters. Of course she had heard other stories of his exploits, like being able to defeat two S ranks, Gaara of the Sand, revealing Danzo Shimura's real colours and even creating an S rank attack from scratch. The fact still remained that he was her superior in rank, tailed beast and possibly even skill, so it was best to keep her opinions to herself until she was proven without a shadow of a doubt that he was as strong and as skilled as the stories make him out to be.

That night, just like every other night, as everyone besides the guards and Yugito slept, Naruto sat in his tent with his legs crossed in meditation.

 **Authors note**

 **And that's it. I hope you didn't notice how I rushed the chapter.**

 **Please drop a review on what you think; reviews encourage me to write more. Send a PM if you really want to say something. Also! Try reading my other stories. If you liked this you might like my other stories, I assure you.**

 **See you on the flip side.**

 **Foy.**


	23. Chapter 23

**Been a while huh. I'm getting some pretty fantastic reviews for this story, makes me feel good tbh. Thank you all for staying this long reading this story, and also for those reading my other stories. I appreciate it :)**

 **I decided to publish this chapter today because I'm not sure when next I'll be able to publish again (sadly…I'm looking at-at least 3-4 weeks of update hiatus for me). Reason? I've got exams (surprise surprise), but I'll still keep chatting on this site.**

 **Speaking of chatting, I've got a special announcement but you'll have to wait until after reading the story.**

 **I had fun writing this chapter, as I always do with all my other stories BUT despite that I welcome constructive criticsm (as long as you stay civil, go nuts) because I want to grow as a writer, as with any other writer on this site.**

 **Enough of my babbling. I hope you enjoy reading.**

CHAPTER 23

' _I should have known something was going to happen; the trip here was awfully peaceful,'_ Naruto murmured to himself as his blue rectangular shield spiralled out his right forearm and a chakra scalpel, courtesy of Kabuto Yukushi, clanged against it. Naruto was crouched on the ground as he blocked the attack, over Yumi Chou's weakened form, with his left palm on the ground and Kabuto, not too aware of the full extent of his mastery over the chakra beam attack, didn't anticipate the four earth fists that shot out from directly under him and cracked against his chin. Naruto didn't change his expression as his nails scratched the ground as he fisted his hand before he cancelled his shield and levelled his now open left palm at the airborne medic ninja, _'Lightning release: Chakra beam,'_ and a torrent of bluish-purple chakra poured from his hand and washed over the silver haired teen. The blonde's mouth twitched downwards as the attack fazed through the ninja, revealing him to be an illusionary clone, the real one probably switched with it at the last second. He looked down as he heard a groan and he placed a hand on the wounded Chill leaders shoulder, forcing her to stay on the ground while his genin team rushed to him, "take care of her,"

"Hai, sensei," he stood up and began walking off towards the sounds of violent fighting in the forest bordering Kumo, "Noriko, barrier seal," the budding seal master nodded at his teachers command and unrolled a scroll on the ground, then slapping his palms together as Naruto disappeared into the forest in a cool jog.

" _Fuinjutsu: Seal barrier."_

The night before had been fairly uneventful, with the Wave and Chill guards keeping up their rounds keeping watch of their camp and the forest around them while Yugito kept a careful eye on Naruto's tent, sensing that he was sleeping but wasn't lying down…

 _Flashback_

Naruto, still in the combat uniform he wore that day, sat down with his legs crossed. He breathed in deeply and breathed out, then he placed his hands into the _ram_ hand seal, and closed his eyes. He allowed his chakra to flow through the hand seal and the sensation of falling backwards hit him but he refrained from opening his eyes, only allowing his consciousness to fall back and landing softly on lush, green grass, in a wide field that had black clouds floating in the sky and the moon shining crimson red. The trees looked relatively normal, besides the tree situated on an island at the very centre of the field that was completely made up of ink and seals. The boy looked around and instinctively tested to see if his hands and feet were still working before he huffed to his feet and looked around for the imprisoned tailed beast. His search didn't last long; the Kyuubi pranced out from behind a clump of trees and stopped close to his jailer, sky blue eyes clashed against vulpine red eyes as the beast sat on his haunches and cocked his head to the side.

"I see the two tails holder got to you," the beast simply said with a roll of his eyes and Naruto nodded as he placed his fists on his hips.

"She thinks I'm weak."

"Are you?"

He scoffed and shrugged, "I don't know, you tell me," especially since Kyuubi knew him better than he knew himself AND the beast was always brutally honest,

The beast, with his tails waving around behind him gently, replied, "You're strong for your age-"

"That's still not a reply, Kyu-san."

Kyuubi sighed, "You are strong." The beast rumbled as he strongly stared at Naruto, who was used to the beast giving him the look. "You are unbelievably strong, especially for one your age."

"Thank you," Naruto said as he briefly sent the behemoth a wide smile, "but that still won't change my mind."

"I told you, you would be ready for all of my tails when you're sixteen."

"That's three years too far; I want to be really ready to face who come against me and complete control of your chakra would do that."

"Wouldn't sage mode be better than using my chakra?" Kyuubi prodded as he laid his head on his the ground and looked at his jinchuriki.

"I don't have a summons-" his long-time friend stopped him with an amused exhalation.

"We both know that you don't need a summons to use sage mode; you've got your _Chakra high_ seal. That's sage mode, if anything it's as close as non-animal summoners can get to sage mode."

"I've already mastered that; _everyone_ with the seal has mastered it, and combined with your chakra and mine there is no limit to what can happen."

"Like an explosion capable of destroying all life on earth,"

"Or," Naruto interjected, "chakra so potent, even more potent than yours and mine combined, that will make people think twice before attacking my allies, not just me."

Kurama sighed tiredly and slowly sat up again, getting to his feet and looking down at the pea sized boy, "I see I can't change your mind," he shook his head in exasperation, "you're just like Kushina." Oh the flashbacks…

"Compliment me later, fight now," and as an afterthought, "please,"

The fox rolled his eyes and bared his teeth in a dangerous snarl, "prepare yourself,"

The blood moon illuminated the field well enough, despite the dark clouds that were in the sky, so Naruto was able to see the three fox tails that shot down to him so he could leap backwards away from it and spin away from the two the erupted from the ground with the intention of skewering him. There was a low, almost quiet bell that rang through the field, and the landscape took a small change, barely noticeable by the untrained eye; the tree on the island covered itself with a translucent dome. The Kyuubi's fur stood on end and his formerly light red eyes darkened evilly, his back hunched over and his claws grew, sharper than anything Naruto had ever seen in his life but he wasn't dissuaded. The small speck standing on the grassy field that looked up at the beast in defiance forcefully controlled his heart as he got into the _Third stage Armadillo fighting style_ position; getting on the ground like he was about to start sprinting. He also underwent a few intimidating changes; his blonde hair spiked up even uncontrollably and his blue eyes darkened with determination.

He shot forward in a roll that kept going, gathering earth around him until he was covered in a rocky ball half the beast's size and Kyuubi shot forward as well. He smashed his head against the ball with a thunderous crack but the ball screeched and kept pushing forward (like a cart tyre). The tailed beast had a monumental advantage over Naruto with his tails and the surface knowledge of some of Naruto's skills, so he used two tails to lift the ball of rock and earth and two more to stab into it. Silence reigned after that and the Kyuubi tutted as he slowly pulled his tails out to get a look at his holder, "better luck…next…time…?"

"Don't underestimate me," Naruto muttered as he crouched on the two tails with a dome of blue chakra protecting his shoes from touching the demons tail. The chakra powerhouse charged up both chakra beam seals in his hands, crackles of purple lightning licked his sleeves and singeing them slightly as he slammed them down on the tail without hesitation, _"Chakra beam: Lightning resonance!"_

The electricity passing through the great beast was potent enough for his skeletal system to flash erratically and his tails to flail madly. Kyuubi bellowed and slapped the boy off his tails; Naruto hit the ground, back first from the speed and the power, and bounced three times before he got both of his hands under him and flipped five times, each on to slow down the speed he was hurtling in, until he stopped at his feet and skidded backwards, his hands deep in the ground and clawing it to stay in place, carving a destructive path of twisted soil and grass as he did so. The boy excitedly licked his lips as the nine tailed beast charged at him, infuriated that his jailer had deceived him.

The demon fox opened his mouth wide and started pelting his jailer with black balls of evil chakra the size of average human beings. The Wave leader hurriedly stood up straight and hopped away twice while his hands weaved through a fairly long set of hand seals, _"Wind release: Wind tunnel,"_ not a second later wind began spinning around him and the beast bullets Kyuubi had been shooting at him smashed against the wall mercilessly, cracking it visibly each time and the beast kept pelting murderously towards Naruto, _'I just need a second,'_ Naruto mentally prayed as he placed his right hand on the ground, brown chakra glowed around the palm on the ground, _"Chakra beam: Fuinjutsu: Journeyman's chain prison,"_ the earth chakra pulsing out of the chakra beam seal in his right hand forced itself into the ground and a split second of peace fell on clearing, before it was violently broken when wrought iron chains as large as the beasts fingers burst out of the ground, breaking apart the ground, and speedily wrapped around each of the tailed beasts limbs and tails. This stopped the beast abruptly and he growled at his suspiciously sturdy chains.

"Wait…no!" the beast roared and Naruto, still inside the breaking wind tunnel, levelled his other hand where another chakra beam seal painted onto his palm began glowing bright red, all while still keeping his left palm flat on the ground. The seal melded with itself and morphed into a different seal.

" _Suppress!"_

"Dick move, Naruto! That's cheating!" Kyuubi yelled as his chakra was forced out of his pores and straight into the suppression seal on Naruto's palm.

"I'm a ninja, deal with it!" Naruto retorted as he grit his teeth under the constant strain of pulling out the toxic chakra out of the beast and channelling it into the wrought iron chains that held down the Kyuubi.

The _journeyman's chain prison_ was a jutsu of Naruto's creation where he combined an earth attack from his chakra beam and the tailed beast suppression seal. The suppression seal wasn't just an ordinary one he could possibly use on the six tails, but one that could only be used on the nine tails, the strongest of all tailed beasts. Originally, the seal was meant to hold him, the jinchuriki of the nine tailed beast, down if he was to ever go berserk under the beast's chakra, but it could also be improvised to hold down the nine tails itself. Not indefinitely, of course, just long enough for Naruto drain his chakra down to a sizeable level. Simply speaking, he had replicated the Uzumaki chakra chains using a level nine suppression seal and his chakra beam, though it was not as perfect as the original Uzumaki chakra chain.

The chains inflated more and more, getting stronger and stronger with each influx of Kyuubi chakra and the Kyuubi in turn began shrinking, as his tails turned into short stumps one after the other, leaving just five tails and the beast twice as big as a gorilla born and raised in konoha's forest of death, which was much bigger than a gorilla born anywhere else. The beast used its drastically reduced size to slip out of the massive chains, which were large enough to hold onto a creature much bigger than what he had shrunken into. Naruto let go of the ground as the Kyuubi drilled a tail down on his former position, releasing the suppression earth chains. The chakra flowed through the ground and into the pools of chakra, specifically a section to hold Kyuubi's, where it would stay until their fight was over.

The blonde ninja grunted as the tail skimmed past his gut, cutting his side open slightly and infecting him with Kyuubi's tainted chakra, and from the evil smirk plastered on the beasts face as he withdrew the tail he knew the situation Naruto was now in. The boy grabbed his side with his left hand and coughed, clumps of thin bleed fell from his mouth and hit the trussed up grassy ground. He heavily fell onto his knees and coughed again, more blood flowed from his lips, as well as the wound on his side that refused every effort on his part to seal up.

When a jinchuriki and a tailed beast reached an agreement, a sort of personal pact between the two, that the holder was ready to possess all of its chakra then the resulting fight would be between beast and man, with the man not having any of the perks of a normal jinchuriki, not even control of his mindscape. He (or she) was to fight the beast as every other normal person would.

The great fox beast slowly lumbered to Naruto's kneeling form and frowned as Naruto coughed again, struggling to breathe with each desperate wheeze and gut wrenching hack. The wound that had caused it all now looked like a gruesome slash in his side, further eroding into the boy at an agonizingly slow pace. Quite frankly the simple fact that Naruto wasn't squirming in absolute pain or even whimpering increased the fox's respect for the boy. Naruto's shoulders shook as he panted for air, between bloody spurts pouring from his mouth. He could just spy Kyuubi's feet far away from him but close enough for the beast to just reach forward and crush him. A wave of toxic pain washed over him and he clamped his eyes shut, gasping for air as more was squeezed out of his body.

"I told you kid…you aren't ready." The nine tailed fox, a close friend of his holder, grumbled with a small sigh. "Please don't struggle." He only got heavy coughing and racking breathes as a reply, his eyes momentarily drooped as Naruto's shoulders sagged.

"Y-Y-You're…" the boy stuttered, mentally crying as his chakra was burnt out of his body by the ever toxic tailed beast chakra. Kyuubi perked his ears to listen to the boy, with a suspicious downward twitch of his lips. "Y-You're…" his voice was quieter, softer with an emotion Kyuubi was well versed in, seeing as he knew his holder more than any other mortal could ever know. The beast palmed his face tiredly and allowed the boy to speak. "You-You're l-loo-looking d-d-down on me…"

Kyuubi closed his eyes and shrugged. "I'm sorry kid, better luck next time." He was about to reach forward and drag out his chakra from the boy but stopped as Naruto chuckled lowly, starting out with a whisper that increased to a barely audible raspy laugh, something that held the beast back from touching the boy. "What's so funny?"

The boy gasped as the beast chakra ate more into his stomach but he still managed to reply. "Ky-Kyu-s-san…y-you kn-know h-how I f-fight…" his voice was a low whisper, only allowing the beasts heightened hearing to hear him. "B-better than anyone…" his pained stammering lessened drastically and the beast subtly began preparing for an attack, its five tails flailing around.

"What are you getting at?" Naruto wasn't lying; he had been a keen observer in Naruto's life, only adding a few words of encouragement when the boy got lost and guiding him away from the path of total depression, and with all of this going on he was still a major critique on Naruto's fighting style, comparing it to the ones he knew and helping the jinchuriki close up any holes that most would never notice. Every seal created by the young Uzumaki genius, he was there watching; there were little secrets that Naruto could keep from him and these secrets were only secret because he had been sleeping, or was in a noisy part of the forest mindscape.

Naruto coughed again, splattering the ground with his blood and shivering at the blood loss. "I've got you…" Naruto whispered and that was when Kyuubi noticed something, making his eyes widen in horror.

Naruto's right hand was on the ground. Palm open.

" _Chakra beam: Earth coffin."_ Naruto whispered as his hand glowed blue. Kyuubi reared away violently and attempted to leap into the air as the familiar replicated jutsu floated into his ears but it was already too late. His hind legs were forcefully dragged into the ground and his arms followed suit, as he began fiercely smashing his remaining five tails about to free himself they too were summarily swallowed up by the ground. The ground began breaking up, starting from Naruto's right hand and shooting towards the buried tailed beast, creating a circle of cracked earth around the panicking beast. There was a violent lurch all around, even shaking the trees far away from them but gladly not affecting the _Chakra control seal tree_ , and the beast rose up into the air in a rigid circle of earth that prevented him from moving, even a millimetre, and especially because he was in his weakened form he couldn't muster up enough chakra fast enough to break it before Naruto finalized his attack. Naruto's glowing blue right hand followed the beast as it rose into the air, only one eye open out of pure force of will and dying from his wounds. His eye locked onto the beasts own and he ground his teeth together in effort as he squeezed his hand.

" _Crush."_

His voice echoed around the field ominously and there was a loud, spine tingling sound of bone snapping as the box of earth chakra crumpled within itself with Kyuubi still in it.

 _Aaaaarrrrrrrghhhhhhhh!_

Kyuubi boomed in pain as his arms and legs were broken in excruciatingly painful wrong direction, twisting and breaking in eight different ways, and his tails were twisted together grotesquely, close enough for it to feel like they were about to be torn off completely. He fell to the ground with a thud and screamed as his limbs throbbed horribly as a result, thick red chakra seeped from his wounds unhindered, pumping from his broken limbs, his twisted tails and his shattered neck. His eyes were clamped shut as he painstakingly forced his remaining chakra through his body to straighten himself out, while Naruto stumbled to his feet desperately, his feet powering forward to his long-time friend. He released hold of his grotesque wound and reared his right fist back, his teeth painted red with his blood and grit in effort and his eyes wide open as his own chakra spread into the chakra beam seal, which cracked open like a blooming flower and morphed into a completely different seal, different from the _suppression_ seal.

" _Uzumaki Judgement Punch!"_ Naruto bellowed, his burning fist swirling with violent purple-bluish chakra, eerily similar to an Uzumaki whirlpool. The air cracked and groaned as his fist surged forward, leaving a trail of crackling smoke in its wake.

Then his fist connected with the groaning beast's forehead and the mindscape lit up in bright white light.

Naruto's eyes flashed open when the flap of his tent was gently prodded open. His eyes instinctively looked down at his right arm to see if there was any physical consequence of pulling out his last attack and it was in the form of the long sleeve being shredded and steam lightly wafted off his arm. The young leader sighed in frustration and pulled off his flak jacket, then his shirt while he ruffled through his bag for another shirt, momentarily forgetting about the person that had opened his tent flap, even as the masked woman fell onto her knee in a classic ANBU submissive position.

"Na-Naruto-sama!" Mole hotly whispered as steam billowed from her ears, watching as Naruto's back moved while he ruffled for another shirt in his backpack. The boy was _shockingly_ fit, his clothes were clearly meant to hide the lean muscles he piled on during his training. Looking at his back, for the gobsmacked DARK deputy commander, was like looking at an intricate painting made up of flesh and bones, speckled with seal tattoos she had heard that high level seal masters had. The woman had never seen the boy without his shirt on and had definitely not see all of the artfully depicted drawing and seal tattoos over his entire torso and winding down his arms, just stopping short of his fingers and collarbone; he usually wore a short sleeved shirt and shorts with ankle and shin guards. The boy made it a priority to not show off his hard fought for body in public, or to unfriendly eyes, because, despite everything he had done that already made him famous and despite having a body most people would kill for, he was still, at heart, an insecure child.

The woman's superior hummed and put on another deep blue long sleeved shirt with black and white stripes winding up to his upper arm. He shrugged on his flak jacket and motioned over his shoulder to the jounin for her to speak while he started looking for a wheat bar. He tossed on over his shoulder to her and began chomping as he listened. "We have detected a group of five people heading to the camp." She deftly caught the offered bar and stashed it away from later.

"Any clue on their strength?"

"They are suppressing their chakra too well and they are still too far away to make a guess, sir."

"Have you warned your other comrades?" he was also talking about the Chill ANBU.

"Yes sir but Yumi-sama has already gone to meet the group."

Naruto's eyebrows shot up into his hairline and he froze mid-bite. "Do you know why?"

"Yumi-sama said that she didn't trust them; she intended to intercept them before they got too close to the camp." The woman continued mechanically. "Her guards went with her and Nee Yugito-san chose to stay back."

"Well this is just convenient…" the Wave leader muttered as he ushered the older ninja out of his tent, following after and idly nodding to Yugito as she bowed deeply to him. "This trip was just getting fun and we're going to be side tracked, no doubt Orochimaru got wind of our intentions." His bright blue eyes sharply looked towards his students tents and beamed slightly when he noticed the three of them standing at attention in front of their tents, one for Noriko and Inari and the other for Kam; he was training them to be light sleepers and proper protocol in these sort of situations. The protocol in this situation was to wait patiently of the leader, or leaders, of the group to emerge to give them their assignments.

Suddenly there was a ground shattering explosion in front of them and Mole immediately dove in front of her leader and erected a mud wall to deflect the backlash, idly noticing as Naruto erected a large blue ball of protection around Yugito, two of her DARK comrades and himself, his eyes frantically wide in surprise. He hastily dropped the blue iron ball and leaped over the mud wall with one hand, his eyes searching for his students before anything else, even as dust filled the camp ground. He ran in their direction and sighed heavily, feeling his heart drop in relief, as he saw a blazing blue dome of seal protection covering the genin, with Noriko in the middle of the dome with both of his hands holding the seal up.

The young blonde felt his senses flare and he stepped aside from a downward clubbing blow from a grotesque, motely grey beast covered in warts and wielding a bludgeon four times the size of his whole body. He crossed his fingers and a flurry of papers, six in number, slipped into his hands, he slapped them onto the monsters stomach before it could gather its senses, noticing that its intended target had dodged at the very last minute. Naruto covered his body with another iron blue bubble as the resulting explosion from his last action blew up the creature without mercy, showering the camp with blood and guts, but that was the least of his worries.

Naruto snapped towards the crater and glared as the dust cleared enough to see blonde hair under the foot of another disgusting, massive monster. Without thinking he charged forward and thrust his palms at the beast, a whirlwind of paper spiralled from both of his sleeves and the boy flicked his fingers quickly, barely noticeably, and they curved around the monsters downward smash and slashed harshly into its head.

 _Boom!_

The boy dove onto his injured comrade, surprise overcoming him at that fact. Yumi Chou might not have been the strongest member of the alliance but there was a reason her people respected her, not because of her, mostly, wise decisions or even her looks but also because she didn't use her heritage as successor to be weak. Her abilities were high jounin, if not mid Kage. The woman looked like she had been battered to and fro, probably by those mysterious, nauseating monsters that had attacked while under the control of their summoner. The attackers must be high jounin if they had inflicted this much damage on his friend, he motioned for his DARK ninjas to go and support the Chill ANBU in their fight in the forest, they needed all the support they could get. Yumi looked at Naruto with strong eyes and tried to stand up but a firm hand to her shoulder kept her down, Naruto didn't meet her gaze as he raised his left forearm to deflect a _chakra scalpel_ from a silver haired, bespectacled man.

 _Flashback end_

Yugito Nee watched all of this with growing surprise; apparently the boy, highly acclaimed as the world's leading expert in fuinjutsu and a having a store of chakra so saturated and dense it could bring most people to their knees, was able to hold his own fairly well against two behemoths and a Sound ninja, if the forehead protector was any indication.

She wasn't aware that after the boys monumental fight in his landscape against the Kyuubi for ultimate control had burnt away more than half of his chakra and left him with barely enough to run. His first two attacks, the papers bombs, took little to no effort on the boy's part since he had become very proficient in using them, but the chakra beam and the two iron blue bubbles he summoned were wearing him down. As the Wave leader commanded his genin fuinjutsu user to cast a barrier seal over his team and the injured Chill leader he discreetly signed for her to watch over them before he disappeared into the forest to aid his DARK and the Chill ANBU. A few moments of indecision and swaying from side to side and she decided to leave a fully powered lightning clone with the team and blurred right after him, just to see first-hand what else he could do.

Naruto was hopping from tree branch to tree branch in a flurry of motion, towards the fight and he frowned as his senses felt concentrated lightning affinity chakra follow him, he allowed it to slip off his mind for the moment; he would deal with her later, now he had these Sound ninjas to deal with. His chakra was slowly returning, but not fast enough for him to wait, leaving him with just one other option to use to overpower the fighters. His sky blue eyes darkened dangerously as he spied the location of their fight, he sped up and exploded into the glade.

Kidomaru's head spun to the abrupt sound and he yelled as a pair of feet stepped onto his face, bringing his head to the ground and forming a small crater under him as an effect.

Naruto spread out his senses as afar as his limited reserve could allow and took in everything within three seconds.

Two Chill ANBU seemed to be out cold, two DARK ninjas were out cold as well and the rest were in an unrelenting fight against four shinobi wearing the hitaite of the Hidden Sound, minus the one he was standing on. He couldn't merely shoot them down with chakra beams because he could only afford one before exhaustion took hold and he passed out, that just wouldn't do in this situation. So without delay he hopped towards one of the attackers, that had a head sprouting out from his back, and fought him in hand to hand.

Naruto's fighting style was a warped, older version of the classic Iwa kick boxing fighting style, except his fists and feet were secondary weapons, while his forearms and shins were primary attacking tools, and if used well enough he wouldn't even need to use his fists. The boy learnt the fighting style just to compliment his affinity for fuinjutsu but now that he was limited to just using it without seal support it was just a little bit harder to use. Not anything he couldn't handle though…

The boy slapped aside both hands to his shoulders with his forearms, protected by their guards, and slammed his right shin into the side, cracking a rob a the sheer brutal strength he used. He pulled back his forearms and simultaneously drove them forward to crack against the attackers face, shattering his nose and thrusting him away so Naruto could attack the next person, a girl with bright red hair lifting a flute to her lips to blow. Correctly deducing that the flute was a sort of weapon he flicked his fingers at her and twelve paper shuriken shot from his sleeves, Tayuya dove away just in time but didn't anticipate the paper weapons whirring after her, distracting her from blowing her flute. The cursing girl was too busy running away from the bombs, not noticing as another barrage was sent to her from the other side.

 _Boom!_

The first volley of spinning sheets of sharp paper entered the first explosion; the resulting explosion shook the ground violently.

 _Boooooom!_

' _Two down.'_

" _Take it easy kid, your seriously low on chakra."_ Kyuubi grumbled as it lazily lay under the seal tree, a tail dipped into the crimson red section of the pool of chakra to reabsorb his chakra. Naruto wasn't too lucky; he had to wait the normal way to get back his chakra.

' _When have I ever not taken it easy?'_ Naruto grunted in question as he rolled backwards from webs shooting from the ninja he first attacked, quickly signing for a DARK ninja to retrieve the first two ninja he had dealt with. Mole appeared beside him, her tanto unsheathed and dripping with dark green blood.

"Blood clones, sir." She abruptly said to her superior and he hummed in thought.

"Dispatch of the clones' then." The captain saluted and blurred to take care of the apparent leader of the Sound ninjas.

" _They were probably here to gauge your strength."_ His tailed beast friend said and Naruto nodded after a small pause.

' _Good thing I'm low on chakra huh.'_

" _Why's that?"_ Kyuubi questioned as he attentively watched his holder scan around for any more opponents, seeing as the remaining ANBU were taking care of them well enough on their own. The boy was answered as he quickly raised his right forearm to deflect a chakra scalpel, lifted his left foot to avoid being tripped and slipped back a step as a knee was driven towards his stomach.

Naruto remained calm as the attackers face finally rang a bell in his memory. "You were in the chunin exams." He momentarily asked, not forgetting his beast's question. Kabuto, breathing a little deeply from the effort to stay corporal (blood clone), mockingly rolled his eyes.

"And you're that crippled kid the Sandaime rejected."

A twisted smirk crossed Naruto's face after hearing this. "Why yes, I am." This confounded the medic ninja clone and he ran to Kabuto. The ninja jabbed at the younger boys head but Naruto skidded on his knees under the blow, dodging the deadly chakra scalpel, and used the action to drag back Kabuto's right leg, bringing him to the ground. Naruto got to his feet and harshly twisted the leg, snapping the bone, and stepping on Kabuto's back, pulling out the leg completely with a mighty heave. Kyuubi snorted in amusement, even bursting out in laughter as Naruto brought down the ripped out leg onto Kabuto's head numerous times, caving his head in and not even giving the medic ninja time to scream in pain from the torn limb before his head became a bloody smear on the ground, his body slowly followed, confirming Mole's report that the attackers were merely highly powered blood clones.

The leg in his grasp fell apart into clumps of clotted blood onto the ground and the boy rubbed his hand on his pants to get them off, as he knelt down beside his two unconscious DARK operatives, feeling for a pulse. There was a pulse, thankfully, but his senses told him that their chakra was in disarray, like they were under a powerful genjutsu.

Genjutsu.

His senses reached out to the near Chill ANBU and they too were under a genjutsu, one so strong he didn't think he could cast it off with his low chakra levels. He snapped his fingers and Eagle and Raven rushed over to him from investigating the attackers' disappearance, gathering their blood samples and storing it away so that they could send it back to Marsh for the village's lab technicians to research on it. They _could_ send it to Wave but the village was still growing, as such they had the money to spare to buy state of the art equipment but they were still training those to work in the labs.

"They're under genjutsu." Naruto simply said and Raven, a master of genjutsu, slapped his hands together and muttered.

" _Kai!"_

 **OOOOOOOOOOO**

 **10:00am**

 **Ichikraku ramen stand**

 **Konohagakure no Sato**

Yakumo impatiently bounced in her stool, waiting for her order of ramen and looking around the semi-busy stand for someone. To her right sat Hinata leaning her back to the counter, her eyes flicked to the boy beside her, Sasuke, and he shrugged at her silent question. The young Uchiha looked to the entrance flap of the stand and frowned heavily as a blue haired man with tanned skin entered and sat down beside him, the Uchiha and Hyuuga took this as a sign for them to also sit down. The man smiled at them and ordered for a bowl of ramen.

"Naruto-sama sends his regards, he couldn't be here himself be-"

"He has an important mission to Kumo, we know." Hinata cut in and glowered into her bowl of ramen. "How is sensei?" Sasuke too turned to the man attentively, as well as Yakumo, and the Konoha students of Naruto waited patiently for the man to tell them on Naruto's current state.

Daku, under a Henge, smiled a little at the students and turned to them, propping his right arm onto the counter to keep him steady. "Naruto-sama is fine, he just wishes he could be here himself to see you two off." Yakumo sighed and prodded her noodles, suddenly losing her appetite. "But he promised to be in Suna for the last part of your exams, Gaara-sama has already reserved a room in his home for him."

"That's nice of him…" Hinata trailed off sadly as she swirled around her broth and ramen slowly, disappointment clearly evident on her face.

"Naruto-sama also said I should give you three this letter-" he had not yet finished before Sasuke hopped to his feet in surprise.

"Sensei sent a letter?" he asked, gaping slightly and Daku nodded in amusement, pulling out a light blue envelope with a Six village alliance stamp on it; a small square with an illustration of a gleaming silver training with billowing smoke puffing from it, symbolizing the alliances close connection and trust through the establishment of their trains.

Sasuke refrained from snatching the envelope from Daku's hand, looking over his shoulder to Hinata, the leader of their group because she was Naruto's oldest student, and gently taking the letter from the seal creation when she nodded for him to go ahead. It was Naruto that had appointed her as the leader of his Konoha student team; she was his first student as well as the strongest. It was tough for Sasuke, seeing as he was used to being the strongest in his generation, but Naruto rarely ever did anything without a reason, like their teacher had once ordered them to spin on their heels for thirty minutes straight, Sasuke thought the command was pointless and merely just a punishment but after the session, and throwing up everything in their stomachs, they all realized, to their absolute shock, that when their chakra was depleted, leaving just a small puddle in them, they would not feel the resulting vertigo. They kept up the spinning every day to increase their tolerance.

Going back to the issue at hand; the Konoha students had been told to wait at the ramen stand by the Hokage and this usually meant that Naruto wanted to visit the village. The two genin were about to leave for Suna in about two hours and had thought that Naruto wanted to see them off, maybe even taking a break from his mission to do so, but it was Daku that came.

Sasuke handed the letter to Hinata and the girl neatly opened it, her heart thumping nervously and her hands just barely trembling anxiously. Yakumo looked at the letter too, biting her lip and Sasuke leaned in to look as well, cutting Daku out of their circle just to see what their teacher had written. Daku smiled graciously at Ayame as she dropped off his order and he began slowly slurping the noodles, allowing his masters students to read the letter.

 _Dear Hinata, Sasuke and Yakumo,_

 _I apologize for not being there in person but, as you may know, I have an important task that cannot be compromised but I promise I will be there to watch the last part of the exams, which I am sure you will be in._

 _About the exams, I do not want you two (Hinata and Sasuke) to hold back or get overconfident, I have taught you better and you know what happens if you underestimate an opponent, and I'm sure you are all aware of what I will do when I find out that happened. You are each strong, even you Yakumo,_ here Yakumo blushed lightly and scoffed _and I want the world to see the product of your months of struggle. This is not about me or displaying the things I can teach but about you guys._

 _Hinata, you've grown immensely under my tutelage and you have shown me that as long as there is life in your body you will not give up, I'm proud of you for that. Don't let anyone dictate your life to you._

 _Sasuke, there are few people I can say this too and you are among the few; you're fighting spirit and yearning to improve is awe-inspiring. I'm proud of you. Don't let anyone look down on you._

 _Yakumo, you are the youngest of my students and you continuously impress me on your drive to better yourself; you are not a weak little girl anymore. I'm proud of you. Don't let anyone tell you otherwise._

 _I'm proud of all of you, more than I can express on paper, and I believe with every fibre of my being that you will both be promoted, and that you will soon join them Yakumo._

 _Well, I need to go now, the camp is just about packed up and we're heading to Kumo now. I'll try my best to finish the mission and meet up with you guys, I'll even bring my genin team to watch; they really want to see you guys._

 _See you three in Suna,_

 _Uzumaki Naruto._

 _Leader of Wave country._

The ramen bowls that had been served to the genin, and academy student, were now cooling down. Hinata set down the letter, fire burning in her pale byakugan eyes and she looked at her fellow Konoha students of Naruto, their faces in grim determination as they nodded at each other. The Hyuuga handed the letter to Yakumo and she slipped it into her backpack.

Daku tilted the bowl of ramen into his mouth and smacked his lips in pleasure. "Naruto-sama also said I should tell you that he has a surprise for your three if you succeed in getting to the third stage." He patted down his pockets and pulled out a brown wallet, slapping a few notes onto the counter and motioning from himself to the three students. "I'll pay for your ramen, don't worry about it."

"Th-thank you…" Yakumo stuttered lowly, still trying to process the straightforward letter, as was their teacher's habit.

Daku smiled warmly and ruffled Sasuke and Hinata's hair playfully, pulling them out of their shock induced silence. "Good luck." And he left before Sasuke could punch him for messing up his hair. The Uchiha hurriedly swallowed his ramen, as did the rest of the students, just before they got off their stools.

"Let's go make sensei proud." Hinata said and fist bumped Sasuke, throwing an arm over Yakumo's small shoulders and walking out of the stand to report with their teams.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Kumogakure no Sato main gate,**

 **Kumogakure,**

 **Lightning country.**

" _This one is dangerous, kitten."_ The Nibi echoed to her jailer and Yugito mentally nodded as she looked at Naruto from the side of her eyes. The boy was lazily walking beside her, his hands behind his head and looking at the entrance gate they were proceeding to. His guards were scattered around and Yumi, floating before them in his wheelchair, was whispering with a Chill dark operative. _"That chakra beam attack was no joke."_

' _Seriously, I didn't think it was that much of a big deal but the lightning attack could have killed that glasses guy if he didn't switch.'_ She shook off the intimidation and it was then she finally took in the Wave leader; he was a head and a half taller than her with messy blonde hair and bright, intelligent blue eyes that sparked with subtle mischievousness. He was in black ninja pants and blue sandals with a long sleeved dark blue shirt, with white and black striped sleeves. On his head was a wide brimmed light blue leader's hat and his customary light blue leaders cloak blew lightly in the wind with each confident step he took. The Kumo ninja realized, again, that Naruto was putting on a friendly air, like he didn't want to make her uncomfortable and for good reason too; he was a level nine and a half fuinjutsu prodigy that had taken down numerous powerful opponents, some with skills and jutsu he had personally created. He was the leader of Wave country, a slowly rising country that would definitely one day become a major village if it kept going in the direction it was going, and was the main spokesperson for the Six Village/Country Alliance despite his age, because he had shown on many occasions that he was clearly older than his age indicated. Everything he had and everything he had done he had clawed tooth and nail for.

Any sane person would want to steer clear of him after hearing of the things he had done and the things he _could_ do but, clearly, that wasn't his intention.

She didn't realize she had been full on staring at the other blonde ninja until he brought it to her attention. "Ryu for your thoughts, Yugito-san?"

The woman coughed and shook her head. "How are you so strong, Naruto-sama?"

The boy chuckled and shook his head in exasperation. "I'm beginning to get tired of answering that question."

"I'm sorry-" she was cut off with a dismissive hand gesture.

"It's that nearly everyone I meet asks me that question." He jabbed a thumb over his shoulder to his students, who were walking behind him and answering questions from Baboon, a DARK operative, about Kumo from the book Naruto had said they should read. "Even they asked me."

"People rarely see a leader as young as you, Naruto-sama." Yugito said respectfully.

"I had the right support."

" _He's talking about Kyu-nii."_ The Nibi said. _"Didn't know that bastard had it in him."_

"From your silence I take it the two tails has told you who I was talking about."

Yugito nodded with a small smile. "She says he's a bastard."

Naruto laughed and Kyuubi grumbled. _"If I'm a bastard then she's a horny piece of feline shit."_ He sat back on a normal tree in the mindscapes forest and crossed his arms in a huff.

"What did he say?" the two tails holder asked and she shared a smile with the fellow blonde.

"He said she was a pervert." Both jinchuriki winced at the mad yelling from their respective beasts, before they tuned them out and rolled their eyes.

The procession reached the gate of the village and was instantly greeted by the hulking form of the Raikage, A.

The mountain of a man, his body throbbing with muscles thicker than Naruto's head, reached forward and shook Naruto's hand firmly. The boy suppressed his wince as his hand was crushed in the older male's solid grip but retorted straightaway as a seal on his elbow flared to life; A grinned widely at the strength behind the handshake.

"Your much taller than I imagined." The white haired man said. Naruto stood almost level with the man's height, only a few inches shorter. Naruto didn't know how to respond to that, besides widening his grin and crushing the man's hand back, it was like a contest to see whose hand would crumble first and he would rather _**die**_ than concede.

"Raikage-sama." Yugito said dully and the man slowly let go of Naruto's hand, the boy hesitantly returning the favour, keeping a vigilant eye on the man to see if he was tricking him.

"Oh right. Welcome to Kumogakure, Naruto-dono."

"Thank you, A-dono." He motioned to his side to Yumi and introduced her. "This is Yumi Chou, leader of Hidden Chill. She was injured from an earlier attack, which is why she is in that wheelchair." The Raikage noted that the 'wheelchair' was more chair than wheelchair, but still gently took the woman's hand and shook it, making sure not to apply the strength he had used to shake Naruto. The female blonde leader apparently didn't like being left out of the strength competition and summarily squeezed the man's thick hand, eliciting a small yelp of surprise from the stacked Kage before an impressed smirk crossed his face. He released her hand as Naruto continued, motioning to the three others behind him. "This is my genin team, Kaiza Inari, Manzo Noriko and Hoshi Kamlyn." The three students bowed courteously and the hulking Kage waved.

"Your all welcome to my village." He led them into the village and dismissed Yugito. The Raikage walked between both leaders towards the Kage's tower with his hands behind his back. "I apologize for not sending more ninjas to escort you here; we were swamped with mission requests that needed to be urgently performed."

Naruto shook his head and said. "Its fine, we came earlier than scheduled."

"I appreciate you understanding." The man gruffly replied before he looked to the injured village leader. "I think it's best if you get some rest before we begin speaking about the alliance."

"The day is still young; we can begin talking about the alliance." Naruto looked over to Yumi and said. "Unless you wish to go and rest, your wounds were especially grievous." Yumi had told him that as soon as she got to the Sound attackers she had been put under an extremely powerful sound based genjutsu by the red head; from there she could barely remember what happened after until she came to from crashing into the ground and being stepped on by one of the smelly monsters.

Naruto had already sent back word to Wave on what to do.

The woman scoffed. "This is nothing, let's just talk about the alliance." and they proceeded into the tower to the Raikage's office.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Otoagakure,**

 **Grass country**

This whole situation was bringing Daku back to his master's retaliatory attack to the destroyed Hoshigakure.

The dark shadow in his blue haired Henge leisurely walked towards Sound and as he walked his form flickered before he completely transformed back to his normal self, his vulpine red eyes sparkled sinisterly from behind his blue camo turban and he cracked his fists, with two stone batons slithering out from his palms, the tips glowed white with fuinjutsu.

No one noticed the initial attack but the retaliatory strike.

The seal creation repeated this to himself, as a constant, annoying reminder that there were still people that wanted his master dead. And this frustrated him to no end.

Didn't they see that his master was all powerful?

Didn't they see that his conservative nature was more of a blessing and not to be taken lightly?

Didn't they see that if _**his**_ master commanded for the world then he, Daku, and all of DARK, would gladly bring it to him.

Didn't they know that _**his master**_ was being merciful by allowing Iwa and sound to prepare for the war? That he could command merely his Wave shinobi to roll over his enemies and they would do it with smiles on their faces and songs in their hearts.

They took his master for granted and Daku _**hated**_ it.

The monsters eyes smouldered with righteous rage as the village appeared before him, carefully guarded by both missing ninjas and Sound shinobi. His turban unfurled slowly and the cloth flew behind him like two wings, flapping erratically in the wind, like they had minds of their own, and exposing Daku's hidden form.

A burning blue flame with two bright red stones etched with vulpine iris floating where eyes were meant to float. The air thickened ominously and the grass around the beast quivered, shaking under the increase in the increased atmospheric pressure as Daku's true form was revealed. The tips of his seal reinforced stone batons began smoking as the loyal servant of the Wave leader channelled more Kyuubi chakra into them. Beneath the fire creature, who looked more demonic than human, an Uzumaki spiral slowly formed, spinning out from beneath his feet and expanding three feet away from him. The whirlpool glowed red and Daku crouched into a sprinting stance.

The demonic seal creation growled menacingly and lunged into the hidden village, Naruto's order still in mind despite the haze of fiery thirst for blood and death.

' _Destroy half of the village and kill the key shinobi.'_

 **Raikage's office,**

 **Kumogakure no Sato.**

 **Lightning country.**

"Tell me, Naruto-dono, why does your Six Village alliance want to ally with my humble village?" A asked as he leaned back in his chair, lacing his fingers together over his chiselled stomach and looked fixedly at the eerily calm leaders before him.

Naruto shifted in his chair and crossed his right foot over his left knee, leaning back into the chair he had been offered in front of the Kage's desk. He raised an inquisitive eyebrow and cocked his head to the side, briefly sharing a look with Yumi, still sitting comfortably in his wheelchair, before returning his gaze to the heavily muscled man, that looked back with a knowing smirk. "You mean besides the obvious fact that Kumo houses the strongest ninjas and your textiles are to kill for?"

"Oh stop with the flattery." The man said and waved laxly, returning his hands together but this time placing them behind his head. "Be real with me, Wave leader, Chill leader; why do you need Kumo when it is obvious you don't?"

Naruto still didn't give in but Yumi, after casting a quick glance to the main alliance spokesman interjected. "What do you mean we obviously don't need to ally with your esteemed village?"

A again changed position; he placed his forearms onto the sturdy desk and looked over it to his visitors, two astonishingly young but strong village leaders. "Well, for starters, it is well known that the Chill/Smoke combination is a new but relatively powerful one. Two jounins combining jutsu could easily bring a mid to high A rank attack, counter or defence. Yes, I admit I have been closely observing your alliance." He said at Naruto's unsaid question. "Another thing is that your alliances' barrier seal is, for lack of a better word, amazing. Naruto-dono here allowed the Kumo delegation into his village and was gracious enough to permit them to test the villages defence; a lightning force field spanning over the entire village with sensory seals reaching miles away, even over water. Merely touching the electric field would spell catastrophe for the attacker and, I suspect, you, Naruto-dono, still consider this defence as unfinished."

Naruto smiled. "Yes, I still have so many things I want to add."

A laughed bellowed out a laugh. "Never in my life have I ever seen a village defence barrier so overpowered."

"Every defence has a backdoor; people just don't know the backdoor of the alliance barrier." Naruto simply said.

"Anyway." The Raikage continued. "Your alliance has the support of four major villages, even the elusive Hidden Rain village, and a butt load of minor village support, about half of the continent if I'm not mistaken."

"Most of which are trade alliances." Yumi said.

"Of course." A grunted. "Disregarding that, your alliance is still a rising force, but that alone is leaving out your first servant, The Fuinjutsu Monster, Daku-san." The man rolled his wrist boredly. "In my opinion this whole war thing between Sound and Iwa is a joke; their chance of them winning against your alliance is close to nothing, leaving Kumo out of it, that is." They could probably stand a chance against ten villages (give or take a few minor villages) if they brought back legendary shinobi from the dead, but that's crazy…right?

Naruto placed both feet flat on the ground and shrugged. "Most of my comrades know me to be extra, extra, extra careful. At this point I have too much to lose if _I_ lose; I have a country to lead, I have my friends to protect, I have students to train and I still have a lot to learn."

"So your reason for seeking an alliance with Kumo is purely selfish." A pointed out immediately and Naruto didn't miss a beat.

"If protecting what I love is selfish then I guess I'm the most selfish ninja on this planet." Yumi's neck snapped to the younger ninja in surprise and she gaped at his declaration, the sheer fact that he didn't hesitate to call himself selfish floored both older ninjas. "I never intended for my friends and comrades to be this widespread, quite frankly making friends was at the bottom of my personal list, but a friend of mine pushed me to make the most of myself, even as life kept kicking me down, and I found a family in Wave. I needed to make sure my family was safe so I agreed to join the Six Village Alliance, expanding my family _even more_. Now I have comrades and friends that can punch life with me whenever it attacks, and I would do _**anything**_ to keep them safe." He ended his speech by staring steely at the bigger male.

A stared back strongly, the air became tense and Yumi was about to break the silence by changing the topic briefly, before the Raikage burst out into laughter, Naruto didn't share in his amusement. "Your mother once _punched_ me for 'mocking' you a few months before you were born."

Naruto's eyes widened. "You knew my mother?"

A shook his head. "Nope, I knew your mother _and_ your father but relations between Konoha and Kumo was still tense from that Hyuuga incident so we had to keep our meetings secret." As proof he reached into his Kage's cloak, into a small pocket, and pulled out a small black and white picture. He threw it to the boy and Naruto caught it between his index and middle fingers, like he would when he was going to throw paper bombs, and stared at the picture.

In the picture Minato, laughing uncontrollably, was holding Kushina back by her waist while her arms and legs thrashed violently towards A, who was sporting a shiner on his left eye and a bruise on his left cheek. The woman was heavily pregnant but that fact didn't stop her from struggling in her husband's arms, yelling out, what Naruto could guess, was a string of vile swear words he would preferably not want to hear. The Raikage, looking to be in his late twenties, was sorely rubbing his cheek and trying to stay as far away from the feral Uzumaki as possible.

Naruto didn't know he had been smiling widely until Yumi gently touched his arm, bringing him out of his thoughts.

"My brother, B, took that picture. We were about to head out for our annual gambling spree in Tanzuki town but obviously, seeing as I _jokingly_ called you a 'weak little runt', which you _were_ at that time, we had to cancel and reschedule it for another day." The man suppressed a wince. "Her cussing still haunts my dreams."

The blonde boy snickered and wiped a stray, pleased, tear from his eye. "I've heard she had the mouth of a sailor."

A again shook his head negatively. "No, she had the mouth of a sailor's wife's mother-in-law, trust me." the man banged his fists on his desk as he laughed, Yumi joined in, giggling behind her hands at the tid bit of information on Naruto's mother. The man slowly got his cackling back under control and looked at Naruto firmly. "Back to this alliance, I want to be part of it, not because you are your father's son, not even because you're your mother's son, but because you are your own person. Nearly everyone knows how you got to where you are now and I respect your ambition…"

Naruto reached his fingers into his left sleeve and pulled out a normal sized scroll. "I appreciate it-"

"BUT!" A shouted, making Naruto pause as he was about to unroll the scroll on the desk. The living mountain of pure muscle rose from his seat and stood tall, casting a shadow over Naruto and Yumi. "Only if you can beat me in a one on one fight, no holds barred."

The young seal master got off his seat as well, slipping the scroll back into his sleeve, and matched the man's smirk.

As one, they reached forward and the tussle of a handshake ensued between them as they shared a nod.

Yumi could only sit back and palm her face in exasperation. "Ugh, men…"

 **Authors note**

 **Jutsu list**

 **Chakra beam** **: Lightning resonance: a variation of the classic lightning chakra beam it is only effective if the user is able to transfer the lightning through direct contact alone. It is not as powerful as its long distance counterpart but it is still able to stun those that are not expecting it. The weakness is if the target has wind or lightning affinity, which in that case the effects wouldn't be too harsh.**

 **Wind release: Wind tunnel** **: this wind based ninjutsu shrouds the user in a vacuum of cylindrical wind, like the person is standing in a very transparent jar. The force and speed at which the wind turns blows wind outwards with controlled power, so much so that it can barely be felt, or seen, by outsiders or attackers. The only indication of this jutsu being used is the tell-tale circle drawn around the user, the flapping of his clothes (if his or her clothes are 'flappable'), hair (like clothes) and unsettling grass/sand/snow (if they are standing on any of the above). It is only a defensive jutsu that is not meant to last longer than thirty minutes, only ten if there is a constant assault and a minute if the attacker uses a stronger attack (like miniature tailed beast balls).**

 **Chakra beam: Fuinjutsu: Journeyman's chain prison** **: among the many things Naruto has rigorously studied as soon as he found out about his extensive heritage as an Uzumaki and the son of the Yondaime Hokage was on ways to utilize abilities both of his parents were known to possess, like the legendary Uzumaki chakra chains for instance. Naruto was not gifted with the ability to use chains because what chakra density he inherited from his mother was watered down a little, but more than enough, for him not to be able to create chakra chains. His chakra density increased when he became more and more in sync with the Kyuubi but it was already too late to learn to summon chains because they were a skill Uzumaki attained from purity of chakra. So Naruto combined his knowledge in fuinjutsu and his affinity for creating jutsu and formed the** _ **journeyman's chain prison**_ **. It uses a tailed beast suppression seal, one of Naruto's choice depending on the threat size, and** _ **Earth release: Chakra beam**_ **to manifest earth chains from the ground. He is still experimenting on how to use other affinities for the journeyman's chain prison. This jutsu is among the many Naruto had called 'Replica-jutsu' with others being** _ **Chakra high seal**_ **(to replicate the eight gates) and the** _ **Chakra beam: Earth coffin**_ **(to replicate Gaara's sand coffin). There are still jutsu Naruto intends to replicate.**

 **Chakra beam: Earth coffin** **: created months after watching Gaara crush Rock Lee with a** _ **sand coffin**_ **. It is definitely not as strong as the original technique but in the right hands it can certainly rival it, given that Naruto was able to scrape enough chakra to crush a weakened Kyuubi with it.**

 **Uzumaki Judgement Punch** **: this is a culmination of Naruto's pent up rage and frustration towards everyone that kept looking down on him. He is only able to use it once, or else his arm would** _ **evaporate**_ **. Naruto had stacked more seals over the chakra beam seals on both of his hands that were independent of the chakra beam seal, like the** _ **suppression**_ **seal, and among the seals stacked was one that filtered all** _ **yang**_ **(physical manifestation) chakra out of his chakra, leaving only his** _ **yin**_ **(spiritual manifestation) chakra to attack. The effect on the target is what Naruto calls 'retribution', a consequence of looking down on him. The attack can only be used once because, naturally, no human body part is meant to hold the amount of dense spiritual chakra for that long, especially with Naruto's brand of chakra. The punch attacks the targets own** _ **yin**_ **chakra and since Naruto's chakra is dense enough to house the Kyuubi it is safe to say that it would most likely deal irreparable damage. It is one of his most recent jutsus' but he had been crafting it since the day the Sandaime denied him from being a ninja. He still plans on using his judgement punch on Hiruzen Sarutobi, one way or the other.**

 **That's that about that, for now I guess. How do you feel about this chapter?**

 **What about Daku's revealed form? Let's not forget he isn't exactly human plus, before them hecklers go bonkers, he is super strong and all but not undefeatable. Why did is say that? Wait for the next chapter ever so patiently ;)**

 **They should start calling Naruto 'The Replicator' (as a moniker, y'know) with all the stuff he's recreating. Don't forget that there will NEVER be anything completely better than the original (product) but only at the hands of the user, like kid Gaara vs.** _ **this**_ **Naruto now (notice how I said 'kid Gaara'? I literally mean when he was…a kid. You know what I mean?) The journeyman's chain prison isn't stronger or better than normal Uzumaki chains even though they both serve the same purpose; remember that Naruto has to have his hands (or hand) on the ground before he can manifest the chains.**

 **The main thing I'm trying to say is that for everything** _ **this**_ **Naruto has done** _ **and**_ **can do it can be easily undone by** _ **certain**_ **people using** _ **certain**_ **abilities. Not gonna name names or point fingers (just thumbs) but I'm looking at six people, seven if you squint really hard. Can you guess who they are? You'll find out in later chapters their identities ;D**

 **Pairings aren't the main focus of this story; it might not even be secondary focus. There will be dashes of fluff and stuff here and there but nothing serious** _ **for now.**_ **That said, Naruto isn't going to be paired with Yumi or Mole (Em). The only pairing I'm certain of is Itachi and Izumi (Bibi).**

 **Who remembers Nagato and Konan? Or even Diedara? They show in the next chapter. Stay tuned to see what they're up to.**

 **Now about that special announcement I mentioned at the top. I'm on Tumblr now! *throws streamers, throws confetti, shoots firework into the sky***

 **"ghost - of -foy . tumblr. com" that's me! Check me out** _ **but**_ **for the cautious ones you can find out more about what I do there from my 'bio on this site (not sure if this site would let me do that again. I'm not even sure the address I typed even appeared…I** _ **hope**_ **it did).**

 **So what did you think about this chapter? Drop a review on your thoughts, would you so kindly. I hope you're safe wherever you are in the world and I will see you later.**

 **Foy.**


	24. Chapter 24

**This might be a major change but I'll stop using honorifics, I've been getting reviews about them and I guess I was being stubborn. Just a warning.**

CHAPTER 24

On that day in Hidden Sound, Grass country, blood rained from the sky.

A beast of deep red fire and white hot rods of stone in his grasp carved a path of burning destruction through all of Sound.

Any shinobi that dared stand in his way, from jounin to even fresh genin, he tore down without remorse or hesitation. His vulpine red eyes stared forward, the Otokages building his destination, as he blindly cut down and smashed to bits anyone in his path.

Civilians fled in every direction but even they weren't spared; Naruto had given specific instructions: Destroy _**half**_ of Sound…

And maim Orochimaru of the Sannin beyond physical and mental recognition.

Daku, not using the aid of clones, swiped aside a man wielding a pickaxe as a weapon, deducing him to be an overzealous civilian with little to no shinobi training. He didn't care. With each step he took scorching hot blue fire trailed behind him, razing whatever structure to the ground as soon as they got contact.

He got to the main door of the Otokages administrative building, a two storey building that was akin to being a sophisticated laboratory with underground passages than anything else and he allowed his chakra to feel inside. He squinted his eyes in suspicion when he felt a short burst of chakra behind the door, at this point no one dared near him so he didn't bother looking over his shoulder before he kicked open the door.

And then summarily gazed into a pair of Eternal Mangekyo sharingan; he couldn't look away.

" _Eternal Mangekyo Sharingan: Deep genjutsu sleep."_ A deep voice murmured, like he had just woken up and was about to go back for a few more minutes of sleep.

Daku felt his chakra flare uncontrollably and the fire burning behind him sputtered off, his blue camo turban wrapped back around his head and his stone batons crumbled into dust. Over his vulpine eyes spiralled into life an exact copy of the EMS of the user; the sharingan spun quickly and Daku felt himself fall backwards.

As his back met the ground his whole body crumbled back into its base form; a wooden skeleton with stone joints, fingers, toes and skull with black and blue clothes swaddled around his form. There was no chakra to give him 'skin' and no chakra to power the various seals peppered over the base form.

Madara scoffed and deactivated his sharingan, looking over his shoulder to the evilly grinning snake Sannin. "This is the creature you said would pose as a challenge? You insult me, snake."

Orochimaru chuckled lowly, coming of as a deep hiss as his spun around, motioning his puppet, Madara Uchiha, to follow after him and the reincarnated legend did so with a deep frown on his face. "I do not mean to offend you, Lord Madara; I honestly thought he was smarter than that." They proceeded silently down the stairs to the subterranean corridors. Orochimaru allowed the triumphant hiss to escape his thin lips. _'Just a few more days…'_

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **A few minutes ago**

 **Training ground zero**

 **Raikage's quarters**

 **Kumogakure no Sato**

Naruto stared across of the special training ground at his opponent, A the Raikage. The boy rolled his shoulders and cracked his neck once while the muscle bound man threw his cloak and hat aside.

"You fight without your shirt?" the blonde boy asked the other blonde and the man grinned savagely.

"Only when I want to go all out," he clenched his fists and they cracked loudly. "Aren't you taking off yours?"

"I'd preferably not." Naruto answered without missing a beat.

Off to the side of the fighting ground stood Naruto's DARK guards and the Raikage's own guard, for the moment, Yugito, seeing as Bee and his team were out of Kumo on a mission. Mole sat on the soft grass with her legs crossed and both of her hands placed on the ground, ready as a touch sensor in case anything unexpected happened. She nodded her head to her right and left and her subordinates saluted and melted into the environment, Yugito merely leaned onto a tree, observing as the two leaders got into their ready stances.

A shot forward first, both of his fists leading the way as bolts of lightning arced off his body and scorched the grassy ground. Naruto's eyes widened at the speed and he crossed his arms over his face, the intended target.

Mole's eyes squinted in concentration when she felt her master's chakra fluctuate violently. She noticed something she never thought she would ever see in all her days as Naruto's servant; she saw his defence slacken, just barely enough for most to notice, especially in the heat of the moment. She hopped to her feet immediately and darted to her master, Yugito sharply stood when this happened and she began yelling out in protest.

It all happened in slow motion.

Mole forced her limbs to speed up, as Naruto's arms slackened even more, fully exposing his unprotected face to the older ninjas lightning covered fist. A grinned at the opportunity and allowed his fists to surge forward, not noticing how Naruto's eyes became half lidded and toxic red sharingan covered his eyes. He ignored everything else, even the brown haired woman that was pelting toward them, yelling for him to stop, Yugito darting after her, thinking that the Mole masked woman had ill intentions for her village leader.

Naruto's limbs gave out, as the world moved like it was in thick syrup, and he began falling backwards.

Barely a millimetre away from the sleeping boys face and a thin sphere of purple chakra covered his whole body from the attack as well as its backlash, but without having root seals to keep him in place his limp body blasted off the ground towards a sturdy mahogany tree. Mole, with her fingertips just inside the weak purple back up defence grasped onto Naruto's shirt but the force of the attack threw her after him as well. The woman hastily used her body to cover her master, wrapping her arms tightly around him and making sure his head was safely nestled under her chin, before her back met the unforgiving tree, which caved in as soon as this happened.

Mole, ignoring her own injuries, laid her master down gently and scanned his body by laying her hands on his forehead and chest, over his heart. The Wave leader's chakra was all over the place and this seemed to have dragged him into hyper sleep; she fully lifted up his eyelids and her eyes widened in fear when a pair of evolved sharingan, ones she had read about during her time in ROOT, looking back at her.

The loyal to death DARK shinobi didn't look up when A rounded on her.

"What the hell was that all about?!" Mole clenched her teeth when she heard the distinct sound of a kunai being unsheathed, the knife was then placed on her neck and she could only guess that it was Yugito. Leopard swiftly slapped the kunai out of her hand and shoved the woman away, and Raven knelt down beside her, examining Naruto as well and exchanging grim expressions after she had reached the same conclusion as her captain. Yugito reared her hands back as her weapon clattered to the ground and her nails elongated to claws, ready to tear Leopard to bloody ribbons, she hesitated though when Eagle joined in and stood guard before their sleeping master. A dragged her back before she could get herself in trouble from Wave's finest, the grim atmosphere around the two kneeling female DARK, Mole and Raven, was too foreboding and it alarmed him. He motioned for everyone to calm down as he squatted close to Naruto's prone form, again telling them that he meant no harm. "What's wrong with him?"

Raven looked to Mole, her captain, for permission to speak and Mole granted it with a curt nod as she gently unsealed his wheelchair from his left wrist, mentally praying for his forgiveness at having to roll up his sleeves a little to do so. "My lord Naruto Uzumaki is under a genjutsu, Lord Raikage." She said, her strong voice betraying the emotional turmoil rolling in her. She was one of the most loyal Hoshi ninjas in his force because, despite taking her clan from their first home, he gave them an even better place to live in with equal rights with Wave born. He was the embodiment of strength and serenity, level headedness and power that she had dreamt one day to reach. Her life in Hoshigakure wasn't the best and she had been one of the many chunin spared that day.

To her, and a large chunk of Hoshi clan, serving Naruto as a ninja _alone_ was a high honour, but serving him as _a personal guard_ …

The amount of humility she felt after had been personally summoned to Daku's office and informed that she had been listed among those to be the Wave leader's guards could not be put in words. Naruto had then done a one-on-one interview with each of the four selected, without their masks; that day she had tried not to blubber from excitement. She might not have had the dark backstory of her captain, Mole, or the close connection to the leader like Daku but Naruto had admitted that she specialized in something that he one day wished to master.

Genjutsu.

The young leader only had preventions against conventional illusions, from low E to high A. He could deflect them all with varying degrees of effort. The seal master had said that he _needed_ her skills in genjutsu in his guard team in case he, or her team, ever fell victim to an illusion that could not be easily broken by his seals.

A musical illusion to her was child's play, which was why she didn't fall under it when the Sound four blood clones attacked. Now though as she watched as Mole placed her lord into his wheelchair she felt useless.

"I didn't use a genjutsu on him." A said deeply and scratched his chin.

"It is a sharingan genjutsu, an extremely strong one." She said mechanically as she knelt down beside her master's wheelchair, checking him again to see if she could do _anything_ at all.

All the while Eagle and Leopard made sure that they were between their lord and Yugito, much to the latter's ire. Baboon was with Naruto's genin team.

Raven smoothly got to her feet and whispered to her captain. "I cannot do anything to remove the genjutsu without damaging his psyche." She ran her fingers through her short, neat bob cut dark purple hair, a nervous habit of hers, trying to think of something to combat one of the strongest illusions she had ever read about.

"What do you suppose we do?"

Raven clasped her fingers together and droned lowly. "We need to get him back to Wave and quickly ask for Itachi to come and see what he can do." Mole nodded and rolled Naruto away, the others followed close behind. Mole whispered something to Raven and she nodded, trudged back to the bewildered Kumo shinobi and said. "My sincerest of apologies Lord Raikage but we would have to postpone the alliance signing for another day."

"I still don't understand how a sharingan genjutsu can affect him here. There are no Uchiha for miles around." He frowned and scratched his chin, before he pointed out playfully. "Are you sure he's not pretending?"

Raven didn't share in his humour. "My lord Naruto Uzumaki does not pretend about such things, lord Raikage."

"Ok, ok, sorry," he apologies. "If he needs anything from Kumo don't hesitate to ask." Raven bowed deeply and hastily walked back to meet her comrades and her sleeping lord. Yugito watched her go with her teeth gritted painfully.

"Do you want me to kill them, Lord A?"

"No, just make sure they leave Lightning country safely." She bowed and ran after them.

"What do you think is going on with master?" Mole asked the resident genjutsu in the team discreetly, away from the ever itching ears of the cat jinchuriki. "Is he hurt? Is he suffering?"

Raven placed a hand on Naruto's head and concentrated looking for something she was familiar with. Human fighting spirit. She shook her head negatively. "My lord Naruto's chakra control is messed up, like there is another person's chakra trying to take over but my lord's chakra is much more and much stronger, there is nothing that can defeat him."

"What do you think is going on then?"

Raven tilted her head down and hesitantly removed her hand from her masters head, a small frown etched on her face, hidden under her raven mask. "Even though the foreign chakra is fighting my lord's chakra, and losing, master cannot simply be pulled out by dispelling the illusion. Think of it like he's…" she searched for the right word and muttered it when she finally found one. "Sleeping. A really deep sleep."

"Master is sleeping…" Mole whispered, pushing the blonde past inquisitive Kumo citizens.

The genjutsu master nodded. "Yes and the only way I can fully study him is to question Itachi on his own Mangekyo sharingan." Her eyes picked out her masters students and they rushed over to them. Inari looked at his teachers slumped position, his eyes half lidded and red, not even moving to ask them how their sightseeing went, which was very much unlike him.

"What's wrong with sensei?" the fish boy asked, trying to decipher the discreet hand signals Leopard was flicking to baboon to fill him in on what was happening. Naruto had instructed them on all of the hand signs, it was that the DARK ninjas hands were moving much too quickly for any of the genin to catch.

"He's sleeping." Raven answered gently and ushered the crowding genin to keep walking, until they got to the gate and they began moving in a steady jog.

Kam furrowed her eyebrows and stared fixedly at her teacher. "Sensei doesn't sleep like that-" her head snapped to Inari when he wanted to ask her _how_ she knew about the way Naruto slept, hissing for him to keep quiet.

Sadly, she didn't warn Noriko. "How do you know how sensei sleeps?"

"That's none of your business." She hotly whispered and if not for the tense atmosphere the two male genin would have giggled at how flustered she was getting.

"We will fill you in as soon as we get to Marsh, for now we need to move quickly." Mole grunted lowly and increased the speed they moved, making sure not to tip their sleeping master over onto the hard ground.

Bringing up the rear was Yumi and her guards. The woman was now healed enough to not need the Wave leader's wheelchair. A guard had filled her in on what had happened and now she didn't want to slow them down by asking frivolous questions.

When they exited from the densely packed trees of Lightning country's border Mole muttered her apologies again and unsealed Naruto's seal board from his elbow, after having to roll up his left sleeve to do so, flashing his sleeve of seal tattoos for only the briefest of moments before it was blocked by a small burst of chakra smoke. The captain threw the board about a foot away and said _"Expand"_ while opening her arms.

The wooden board shivered and plates of steel covered its weaker wooden body before another burst of smoke covered it. Eagle blew the smoke away with a minor wind jutsu to reveal a solid metal board that was large enough to carry all of them; even Yumi and her guards, though the added weight would slow them down. Mole always had the option of asking Yumi to wait behind, the chill leader certainly wouldn't have any problems if it meant her comrade would get back to his country quickly, but Naruto had given her instruction for the woman not be separated from the group again, especially after what happened in the Sound four blood clone attack.

There were thirteen glowing blue circles on the expanded skateboard with average sized wooden chairs in the middle, each person took a seat on them and immediately felt seals fasten them on safely. There was a seat at the very front that was meant for Naruto to sit on, as the pilot of the board, but since he couldn't do that in his state he was placed in a seat on the front right row with Baboon seated behind him, Eagle to his left, Raven in front, Leopard at the very back with the Chill watching their flank and the Wave leaders students were seated in the very middle rows, Inari and Kam side by side and Noriko in front of Inari. Mole took the pilots seat and took a deep breathe, digging through her extensive memory on the instructions Naruto gave her on how to fly his expanded seal board. It was an idea the seal master was still trying to work on, and was making measured progress in it; a means of _safe_ air transportation that was able to carry more than fifty people at a time with little to no problem. He wasn't moving as quickly as he wanted to but he had made a few major breakthroughs in his research, which he quickly applied to his board with each increased expansion.

Mole clapped her hands together and a dome of hazy, light blue chakra covered all of them, a protection against external attacks. She flipped through two hand seals, _dragon_ and _rat_ , and the chakra in front of her thickened until it was a dark blue when seen from inside but the same colour when observed from outside. The wall of blue chakra spun in itself and various circles and switches with different kanji correctly labelled on them melted out from the section of the wall above her. The brown haired woman pushed her hand forward, into the slowly spinning vortex, and pulled out a small, well-crafted wooden wheel that was painted a soft blue and that had the Wave country sign drawn in the middle. She flipped three switches above her with her right hand and pressed two to buttons with her left, outside the seal board the appearance shifted and moved, like looking at a person before he transformed (without being hidden behind chakra smoke) and the body of the board fully merged with its environment, it could only be detected if it a person was close by. Mole steadily pulled back the wheel in her firm grip, showing that it was still connected to the spinning whirlpool of seals, which was now becoming less visible to allow her to see in front of her. The result of this was that wind blew beneath them strongly, struggling to tip over the board but the pilots strong grip fought against it; the board rose up into the air, making a deep _whooshing_ sound as it lifted off the ground and levitated into the sky. There was a soft pinging sound, the sign that they were high enough to fly comfortably, and Mole pressed her feet down a little and the board filled with astounded people shot off in a burst of wind and super suppressed blue fire toward Wave country.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **With Naruto**

He could hear birds singing beautifully and he scrunched up his nose when the delicate scent of lavender and ramen wafted to him. The boy sighed, fearing what he would see as soon as he opened his eyes, especially because he felt unfamiliar grass under his hands, tickling his bare feet, and also that his head was tenderly lying on someone's lap while they ran their slender fingers through his hair slowly, like the person was washing away all the worries from his head.

And it was working, much to the orphan boy's horror.

Naruto inhaled deeply and let it out slowly, gathering courage to open his eyes. His sky blue eyes immediately met bright purple orbs, a gently smiling face on smooth pale skin.

A familiar face…

The woman didn't stop running her fingers through his hair, making him sigh in satisfaction and close his eyes to relax. The woman giggled, her voice sounded musical to him, and she stopped combing her fingers through his hair. "You can't sleep forever, Naruto."

The boy grumbled sourly. "But I want to…" he turned on her lap so that his right cheek lay on her thigh and he looked up at her with childishly large eyes, still trying to recall who she was and why she was there in his mind. She silently allowed him to look at her, taking in every detail.

Her happy purple eyes.

Her moon pale skin.

Her small, pouty, red painted lips.

Her delicate nose.

The crimson red hair that cascaded down her head that pooled around her…

He breathed in again and he was assaulted with the smell of ramen, overpowering the lavender.

Then it finally clicked.

"Mom…?" he slowly got up, his eyes wide in surprise. They began to water and a few drops fell down as she nodded. Kushina Uzumaki smiled widely and opened her arms, Naruto wasted no time jumping to her and squeezing her as tight as his arms would allow, silently crying into her neck. The red head nodded slowly and rubbed the back of his head, urging him to let out everything he tightly bottled up.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **The roof**

 **White lotus flower abandoned hotel**

 **Sunagakure**

"Your brother is doing well." Gaara, the Kazekage, said to the other male standing beside him, Itachi Uchiha. "A lot better than when the copy ninja was solely teaching him." They watched as the youngest Uchiha applied chakra to his feet to stay in place while a blizzard of sand and wind cut around him. The boy narrowed his eyes his eyes despite the wind and crouched to stay in place, digging his hands deep into the sand and spreading his chakra through it, but never leaving his body, to stay rooted to the ground. Not like simply covering the soles of his feet with chakra but spreading it around under him, like tree roots.

A trick Naruto taught him.

Sasuke correctly chose to wear the traditional wear of a regular Sunagakure occupant; black trousers that were taped at the ankles to prevent sand from entering, a long sleeved red shirt that was taped at the wrists. The boy swaddled a light brown turban over his head, leaving only his eyes exposed but his mouth and nose protected from the heat and the sand. Behind him Sakura wore a similar garb, by the Uchiha's advice; the only difference being she didn't cover her whole head but only her mouth and nose was wrapped in a thick bright yellow scarf that the end flapped around her erratically. Sai though stubbornly chose not to listen, only wearing a short sleeved black shirt instead of his regular midriff shirt, needless to say that the sand was doing damage to his arms and face. The team were back to back, scanning the thick blizzard for any signs of movement. Sasuke's three tomoe sharingan caught a chakra signature blurring with the wind and he counted to three before he pointed forward, Sakura took this as a sign and she reared her right fist back and smashed it into the ground. The sand broke up and the ground cracked open from her fist to where her Uchiha teammate had pointed to. The genin causing the blizzard stumbled briefly but that was all that was needed for Sai to throw three ink arrows from his sketchpad that stabbed into the attackers left arm and stomach.

Sasuke threw a kunai in a seemingly random direction and flipped through a few hand seals. _"Body flicker technique."_ His doujutsu kept track of the path his blade took and he instantly switched with it, planting his fist into the face of a different genin when the genin intended to slap the blade away. The manoeuvre Sasuke had used would not have even worked if not for his sharingan, this time it was Kakashi that had taught him to do that. He dug his hands into the sand under him, ignoring the knocked out genin he had punched in favour of dragging out the last genin that had wanted to ambush him from under the sand. He forced the boy to look into his eyes and he said. _"Sharingan: Genjutsu sleep."_

The person in his hands went limp and fell off into a fitful sleep.

Itachi pursed his lips at the lack of finesse on his younger brother's part but had to applaud its effectiveness. Sasuke was the undisputed leader of team 7, not because of his higher learning from the others but because the Uchiha had _placed_ himself in that role and the others accepted it without question. Probably since Sakura still harboured feelings for the Uchiha and Sai was more passive than anyone gave him credit.

The Uchiha outcast had to admit that Naruto was a good teacher, for one his age. Kakashi too but apparently it was the young blonde Sasuke aspired to reach in terms of strength and intelligence.

Sasuke was not completely comfortable with Itachi just yet but he always kept in mind what Naruto had first taught him all those months ago in the latter's personal training area. The younger sharingan user reluctantly explained to his older brother on how Naruto trained him, especially when it came to his altered cursed seal and, to a much smaller extent, the sharingan, which was Kakashi's jurisdiction at the moment. Through training he was made to wear weights, much like the other students under Naruto, including the Wave genin. Sometimes they were to balance on reinforced needles and sealessly go through each hand seal, a complicated task because they needed to use chakra to prevent the needles from puncturing their feet but they had to go through the seals without chakra. This was to increase their seals speed and their chakra control to individual parts of their bodies.

When Itachi asked if Naruto _could even do_ those exercises Sasuke replied that before they were made to do anything their blonde teacher would perform it first to show them how it should be done. Raising the question on when Naruto had learnt all the skills in his arsenal and how he could become so strong so fast.

The first thing that came to mind was that he was a prodigy, and to a lesser extent the Uzumaki was indeed a prodigy _but_ only when it came to fuinjutsu; Naruto was able to create seals by simply using his chakra to draw on a surface, not needing the use of an ink pot and brush since he was a level eight but still using them out of personal tradition. Tsunade had once told him, when they were discussing about his return to service in Konoha, that Naruto had said that he _always_ had ideas for seals and he _always_ had shadow clones studying them and perfecting his craft while he focused more on leading his country and strengthening his alliance.

That brought up another thing that made Itachi think Naruto was strong; his shadow clones. At this point it was a fact that Naruto was among that top five highest chakra reserves in all of the elemental nations because of his heritage as an Uzumaki and also his status as a jinchuriki. Creating thousands of shadow clones could only deplete a little more than half of his reserves but still enough for him to remain conscious. The clones could study whatever Naruto had no time to study and Itachi raised this observation with the equally baffled Hokage. The woman wavered in place, mulling his assumption in his head before nodding…but also shaking her head; Naruto definitely made use of thousands of clones to study scrolls and perfect his chakra control by going through advanced exercises long forgotten but still very effective in recent times but the thing about shadow clones was that they had no muscle memory. Naruto had to go through the body strengthening exercises himself.

Itachi was a logical man; he didn't believe in anything that didn't have any scientific backing. Though when it came to Naruto he was confused, until the Hokage took pity on him and told him exactly why Naruto drove himself straight to the peak.

Determination.

Tsunade Senju admitted without shame that with everything Naruto had studied and mastered he could take her down easier and more efficiently than when they met in Tanzuki town. The boy didn't just have determination to succeed but a _**burning**_ determination to _surpass_. To surpass the expectation of failure and weakness that the Sandaime had placed him on; so in a way Hiruzen Sarutobi had put Naruto on the path he was on now. Though now it wasn't only because he wanted to _somehow_ show his strength to the dead Kage but now it was because there was an entire island country that looked up to him for protection and leadership, five minor villages that looked to him to him to contribute equally as well as pull his own weight and a separate group of people that looked to him guidance and competence, not just his students but those that he had _shown_ his strength, like Nagato, Konan, Tsunade, Temari, Kankuro, Gaara and a lot of others.

That was why Naruto was strong.

Team seven inspected the unconscious Sand team and retrieved a hand sized square of paper with the kanji for _fire_ on it. The Uchiha threw the paper to Sai, who sealed it into his sketch pad, and motioned for his teammates to follow him as he speedily ran to another section of the decrepit, abandoned section of Suna.

"I expect nothing less from a trainee of Naruto." Gaara said easily and turned his head to Itachi. "What about you? How do you think Sasuke did?"

"Sasuke did ok." He said stonily.

A corner of Gaara's lips went up for the briefest of moments. "You hold a grudge against Naruto for defeating you." The Uchiha didn't reply. "Your silence only reinforces my assumption, Itachi."

The S ranked Uchiha shook his head slightly and said. "I do not hold a grudge against Naruto for defeating me." He crossed his arms and activated his sharingan as another team arrived under their observation post. Deep purple hair and pale eyes with a spider web of veins around it told her that it was Naruto's first student, Hinata Hyuuga. Followed closely by Kiba Inuzuka and Akamaru, then Shino Aburame; they were hot on the trail of another team, with Hinata taking the leadership role, yet another one of Naruto's students leading their respective teams, while Shino covered their rears with a few scout beetles fluttering in hidden positions around them in a fifteen feet radius. They uneventfully passed by not too soon after and Itachi deactivated his sharingan, then continued. "I hold a grudge against Naruto because _he_ _didn't_ defeat me."

"I remember now, it was Em and Frog that defeated you. I hear they are shinobi of high rank in Wave, little wonder they bested you."

The Uchiha refrained from snapping. "They made use of one of Naruto's seals, if not for that they wouldn't have stood a chance against me." His ego was taking over; he closed his eyes and reeled it back in.

Gaara conceded to that point but added. "I agree that you would have been a greater challenge without the reverse sharingan seal but I'm very sure you didn't know both of them had chakra high seals."

Itachi turned to the Kazekage to drill him with questions on what the chakra high seal was before Kankuro and Temari leaped onto the building they were standing on with a raven perched on her left elbow, a small scroll tied to its left leg. "A message from Wave, Lord Gaara."

Gaara ignored the title, if not he would have reminded her, again, that she and their brother didn't have to call him 'Lord'. He took the scroll from her outstretched hand and opened it away from Itachi's prying eyes. His eyes scanned the urgent letter and a small frown crossed his face, he looked up at the Uchiha and said. "You're needed in Wave, immediately."

The command reminded him on his new duty as a Konoha ninja.

He could never again be an official Konoha ninja, not after massacring his clan and making an even more infamous name as an S rank ninja through the continent. No leaf ninja trusted him enough to lead them on missions or even participate with them. That much was obvious and that was why he had to move around, in Konoha, in a sharingan Henge, so that he wouldn't be barred from moving around. That was why the Senju Hokage had given him the title of konoha's Ambassador to Wave country, supported by the Fire daimyo _himself_. She had two reasons for doing this; it was a stipulation in the Konoha/Wave alliance in Konoha's favour, like with any other major village allied to Wave, and also because of Itachi's tight position as the village pariah. Temari was Suna's ambassador, Ao was Kiri's ambassador and now Itachi was konoha's ambassador. It was also the other way around but instead of just Wave having its ambassador the _alliance_ had an ambassador to each major village they allied with while minor villages had representatives, who merely reported there and stayed for a few weeks before returning. Ambassadors were able to stay for at most six months before they had to apply for re-admission into their respective villages again.

Back to the current situation, Itachi was duty bound to comply with the order to return to Wave, seeing as he wanted to represent Konoha well. He was only unhappy about it because when he had first met with Naruto the boy was serenely calm, a stark difference with when he first met him in Tanzuki town. It could have been that his guards were stationed around the room as well but it was also that the boy was confident in his ways of taking him down.

He didn't like it and he couldn't do anything about it; Naruto was superior.

Itachi nodded and kamui teleported to Wave country.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **General Hospital**

 **Wave Central**

 **Wave country**

There was a buzz going on as medics, both junior and senior medics rushed around the pristine hospital. Their feet skidded on the marble floors as they prepped the entire hospital for the arrival of their leader. The patients rooms were checked again and again, repeatedly, to impress their leader and a squad of five medics, a mixture of Hoshi, Marsh and wave medics, scurried together to the east wing of the hospital, to the section where chakra poison and infection patients were being treated.

The leader of the squad began muttering orders as they entered the very last room, overlooking the entire country, and they began fretting over every detail; straightening bed sheets, fluffing pillows, triple checking the medicine cabinet, cross checking the seals on the walls. When they were done they were told to return that evening, when their leader was expected to return via seal board flight, but until then they were to make sure the other patients remained calm and unknowing of what was going to happen. The head matron was in their numbers, the leader of the ten medic squad; a portly woman with long grey hair. She was dressed in the Wave senior medic uniform, which consisted of a short sleeved blue apron dress with black pants and a white cap with the kanji for medic on it. She was a retired Marsh Kunoichi in her late fifties.

The woman sat down behind her office desk and looked through the hastily written report of Naruto's condition by Raven, the genjutsu expert. It mostly said that it was a doujutsu illusion that couldn't be broken with traditional methods. Her apprentice, a petite Wave Kunoichi in her early twenties shuffled in and presented her with more reports of the other patients under her staffs' care. The Wave leader had specifically outline that a condition to become Head Matron of the hospital was if the person was a well-established medic ninja, not a civilian, and seeing as the Wave apprentice was the best in her class and had impressed her enough to be taken under her wing she intended to pass on the title to her. The Marsh woman was the very last 'other village' head of a 'Wave department', with the water and electricity heads passing on to their positions to their respective successors, A Wave born for the water and a Hoshi clan member for the electricity. The civilian and shinobi schools were already being led by Wave citizens (either a Hoshi or a Wave born), plus the library was under Wave again.

Those that have passed on their jobs were fully compensated by being given permanent accommodations in in Outer Wave and were being paid retirement benefits for their efforts, but only if they chose to stop working for their respective departments, if not they were paid salaries.

The matron had her own house in Outer Wave, a one story apartment stocked with the best furniture and utensils money could buy. It was there that her grandchildren visited her, with their parents of course because her grandchildren were still too young to go about on their own.

She only met with Naruto during council meetings and when she was to report the monthly happenings of the hospital, and despite his age he had shown to be able to keep up with whatever she threw at him.

Thirty minutes before the planned arrival of the Wave leader the woman heard a soft knock at her door and Itachi Uchiha poked his head in. "Ah yes, you are to wait in the chakra poison and infection ward, room 40. My apprentice can take you there." She nodded her head to him and her apprentice, Okami, stood up to leave.

"Yes, sensei."

They stalked up the stairs and moved aside when several squads of DARK shinobi rushed up to the roof, where they heard an audible thump. The apprentice looked on worriedly, assuming the worst in her mind, until Itachi placed a hand on her shoulder and she snapped out of her daze. They arrived at the room and Okami politely gestured for Itachi to stand beside the hospital bed, to the left and away from the window; everyone knew that Naruto liked looking out of the window, over Wave country. There were numerous sounds of stomping, people running through the halls and the door to the room flew open with a sharp bang. Okami suppressed her shocked gasp at Naruto's unconscious state as they wheeled him in on his floating wheelchair. The portly matron stomped in as well and ushered everyone out, besides the other four medics she had personally appointed to care for the leader. Mole put up a fuss as she was pushed out of the room, adamant that her position was beside her master but she was finally allowed in when she had reminded them, very loudly, that her position as deputy DARK commander superseded her position as head matron. The older woman had the mind to refuse treatment to the blonde teen when Mole had declared those words, especially seeing as Mole pulled Raven in as well, but sobered up when, after closing the door and keeping out those that would merely congest the room and distract those that could help out, Mole had removed her mask and quietly thanked her, her hazel eyes droopy with held in grief.

The woman began directing orders to the other four medics, of which her apprentice was among; to connect Naruto to the heart monitor and make sure his neck was not in an uncomfortable position as the woman clicked a button on a remote to lift his upper body up slightly, like he was reclining in a chair. They kept the standard chakra poisoning antidote at the ready beside them but with a genjutsu it was all but useless. The matron watched as the medics took his vitals and noted it down on two different clipboards, which would both be stored in her office. When they were done gathering all the information they needed they slowly, hesitantly, stepped aside for Itachi to walk closer to the bed. Mole's right hand shot forward and grabbed his left wrist; she was silent for a few, short seconds before she whispered.

"Can you help him?"

He didn't look at her, only keeping his eyes firmly on Naruto as his sharingan merged within itself, spinning quickly to form the evolved sharingan. "I'll see what I can do."

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **With Naruto**

The boy had so many questions. The words rushed out of his mouth so fast that it was pretty much a mishmash of sounds and wild gestures. Kushina covered her mouth and giggled in amusement, his face turned red and he stopped.

"You are just too cute, honey." She lilted and pinched both of his cheeks, drawing them out and releasing them with a snap. Naruto winced and rubbed his sore cheeks.

"But-but-but…I want to-"

"You have questions, a lot of questions, you want to ask." She interrupted and when he nodded she gently bopped his nose, his face reddened again, even more embarrassed by how fragile he was behaving. Naruto sat back on his behind, idly noticing that he was in a pair of black shorts and deep blue short sleeved shirt, he rubbed his exposed arms self-consciously, especially when she eyed his sleeve of tattoos that fell down from the darkness of his shirt sleeve until his wrists. She frowned and he cheekily scratched the back of his head, quickly speaking before she could rain fire down on his head.

"Where am I? How are you here? Why am I here? Where are all my body seals?" because he was just left with the tattoos, not the seals, strangely enough. Hopefully though his questions would drown out the yelling at he guessed she would spew on him about his body art.

She narrowed her eyes at him for a full minute, unnerving him when she shuffled forward and sat back down on her behind. Her red painted lips were screwed tightly to the side before she sighed deeply. "Minato had tattoos too; they weren't as many as yours though. I didn't really like them but he had them before we started dating, since when he was a genin, I guess." She shakily placed her hands on his shoulders, making him wince when she unconsciously squeezed them but relaxed a moment later when she had managed to reel in her temper. _'This is a happy moment; I can't waste it yelling at my son.'_ A small smile bloomed on her face and it was mirrored on Naruto's face. "Let's see, in order; you are in your mind, I'm…not your mother…I'm just the physical manifestation of the chakra she stored in the containment seal in case this sort of thing happens, you were placed under a sharingan deep sleep illusion through Daku and lastly the effects of the illusion wipes away any failsafe seals or jutsu of your creation."

His head lowered at the painful truth that she wasn't his real mother. Then something dawned on him; something that scared him out of his close call to depression. "But that means-" his eyes slowly widened and she nodded.

"Your _seal tree_ is gone."

His seal tree did not just control his chakra; it also safely stored Kyuubi's chakra and a combination of their chakra. He had created the tree in his mindscape, an addition to the _death reaper seal_ , as a way to lessen the load on him when it came to controlling all the volatile and dangerous chakra brewing up in his body. Kyuubi, no matter how much Naruto tried to deny it, was right; he wasn't ready to control _all that deadly_ chakra, _including_ the combination of both his and Kyuubi's, by himself, and the containment seal prevented the tailed beast from contributing much.

Naruto's personal well of chakra (that is, _his own chakra_ ) could be easily dealt with; if by some chance the tree dissolves under pressure his chakra would seep back into the ground and return to him. The problem was that once Kyuubi's chakra left his body and was churned with the seal trees roots it could only return if the tree was destroyed, but that meant that the combination, since the ground would never accept it, would go back to Kyuubi, making it even more of a dangerous tailed beast.

The seal master rubbed his forehead with both of his hands, trying to push away the impending headache that wanted to come. He then dropped his hands and asked. "What did you mean by 'this sort of thing happens'?"

The Uzumaki mother flipped her luxuriously long red hair proudly and pouted. "As hard to believe as this may sound I too once fell under a Mangekyo sharingan deep sleep illusion." It was easier to refer to herself in the first person than in the third. Plus it was more refined for one of her calibre, was what she kept telling herself.

' _So that's the name…'_ he thought before he rolled his eyes sarcastically and said. "No…" just to humour her.

Kushina nodded insistently. "Yes, I know what you're thinking. 'How could your badass mother fall under a genjutsu?'"

He decided to humour her again by gasping and clasping his hands over his mouth, like she had read his mind. "That _is_ what I was thinking. How did you do that?"

She tapped the side of her head with her long, purple painted pointer finger. "A mother knows." She then leaned in and said. "My best friend in the whole world, Mikoto, once had the Mangekyo herself and she used that damn illusion on me when we sparred back when we were jounin. I was asleep for three weeks before I could break out."

"So I can only break the illusion by myself?"

"Yes you can but with the help of a Mangekyo user it would be faster, say maybe in a few days. Damn Mikoto was still salty I called Fugaku a fat bastard. It was true!" she exclaimed and crossed her arms like a pouting child. "I regret nothing."

Naruto snapped his fingers in front of her face. "Hey, hey, please I need you to focus." Even though his first impression of his 'mother' was that she had a large, all-encompassing heart and his second opinion was that she had an almost uncontrollable rage his close to third, maybe even his fifth, opinion of her was that she was easily distracted, especially by a sour memory. This wasn't even the first time he had to bring her out of her own mental daze; thank goodness he didn't inherit that from her…

Or did he…

"Honey, honey, snap out of it."

"Hm?" he hummed in question and palmed his face in frustration. "Apparently I did."

"What was that?"

"Nothing. What were you saying about breaking the illusion?"

"Oh yes, I had to do something that would force myself awake. It took me two weeks to figure that out and a week of effort but I found out what I needed to do." She stood up, Naruto followed suit, and dusted down her light green and white casual dress. She spoke as she grabbed hold of his hand and pointed at the sun. They both looked up and Naruto's jaw fell when he saw that the flaming ball of fire wasn't a flaming ball of fire but rather a single flaming red, motionless Mangekyo eye. "I had to destroy that eye."

His eyebrows furrowed and he looked at her incredulously, having to look down slightly because he was a whole head taller than her. "It took you _three weeks_ to figure that out?"

She punched his belly; he doubled over onto his knees at the strength of the blow and groaned. "Don't talk to your mother like she's stupid!" her red hair flared wildly and split apart into nine separate 'tails'. She grabbed hold of his neck and lifted him clear off his feet, her purple eyes dark with suppressed power and downright outrage. " _ **You dare insult me?!**_ " her voice was deep with demonic rage.

Naruto hacked and clawed weakly at her hands, solidly wrapped around his throat like a vice. " _Ack_! Mo-m-mom…I-I'm ch-ch-choking…" his blue eyes began rolling back into his sockets.

Her fiery purple eyes flickered back to her usual compassionate ones and she hastily dropped him, apologizing profusely as the boy massaged his aching neck and he painfully dragged in deep breathes. She gently massaged his back, whispering soothing words as the boy tried not to die. "That's it…breathe…breathe…" she was acting like she wasn't the one that would have killed him if she kept her hands on his neck for a few seconds longer.

If not for the deep seated fear of attack Naruto would have pushed his mother away, though he did stagger to his feet and limp away from her, the woman smiled serenely as she followed after him, her hands clasped behind her as she skipped after him. "I'm sorry…"

She scoffed and clamped a hand on his shoulder. "Oh stop being so dramatic honey, it didn't hurt that much." Naruto's face turned red, just barely holding in the yell he wanted to let loose on her.

"How-how…" he swallowed thickly. "How do I get up there?" he shakily pointed at the eye.

"That's the spirit; I knew you were like me…or like her…you know what I mean." She swiftly ignored his offended hiss and idly kicked away a stone. "You need to _somehow_ cooperate with Kyuubi to do that and _before_ you can even do that, you need to beat him into submission."

"I need to beat-"

 _ **AAAAARRRRRRGGGGGHHHHHHH!**_

"Kyuubi…" the ground shook and the 'sun' darkened ominously and the feral roar of the strongest tailed beast resonated through the air and pierced their ears, sending shivers down their spines at the sheer magnitude and bloodlust saturated in the single animalistic thunder.

Naturally, the weakest any person can ever be was when he (or she) was asleep. This goes beyond talking about the body being partly unknowing of its immediate and remote environment but it also concerns the mind. The brain was resting and processing all that had occurred during that day and organised items stored in the long term memory, dreams were simply re-inactions of subconscious memories; study deep into them and you will realize that they indeed happened to you in a certain degree and to a certain extent. The brain focused ninety seven percent of its resources into keeping the body alive while asleep by commanding the heart to beat and the various organs to process whatever needed to be processed, it didn't have the time or the energy to spare to fight mental attacks, unlike when the person was _awake_. This was why shinobi were trained to sleep lightly, so that every little, seemingly insignificant sound would wake them up. They were again trained to stay awake for as long as possible but the number one cause of shinobi deaths was _still_ lack of sleep, so sleeping was an inevitable part of being a human being, shinobi or not.

People like Naruto, that is to say _jinchuriki_ , were always in a constant battle to wrestle dominance of their minds away from their beasts, whether the beasts themselves intended to dominate or not. Take Kyuubi for instance; Kurama was in a perfect friendly relationship with Naruto, the tailed beasts frequent fear was his holders death, not because he would die as well (he would reform a few years later) but that he genuinely intended to see the boy live a safe and happy life. The fact still remained that even though Kyuubi had control of his chakra, said chakra would still vigorously attack Naruto's psyche while he slept. The _death reaper seal_ helped the battle for total control but it only provided a buffer zone that briefly hid Naruto from the tailed beast chakra, until the zone weakened, just when Naruto was to wake up. The only known way to stop these mental attacks was for the jinchuriki to attain perfect control over his beast's chakra, through a mindscape fight.

Back to the situation at hand, Naruto had been put under an _Eternal Mangekyo sharingan genjutsu induced_ _deep_ _sleep_ , this was the world's strongest sleep related genjutsu and thus placed Naruto on a whole new level of weakness.

He had been stripped of all of his seals and his equipment, but the fact still remained that this was _still a dream_ , not _just_ a mindscape projection, and most importantly it was _Naruto's dream_.

This was what Kushina hurriedly informed Naruto as they struggled to stay solidly on the ground with each booming step from the nine tailed fox they still haven't seen. "This is your dream Naruto; you are the king of your own mind, remember that." the grassy plane around them quivered and shook with each tremor, there were no trees or shrubs for miles around. Naruto was frantically looking around, all too familiar with this side of Kyuubi, he gulped and nervously flexed his hands, hunched over slightly and swivelling from left to right on his feet. His head snapped back to Kushina and he stumbled back a step, out of surprise, when she was not there, though her voice echoed around him. "Good luck, my child, I believe in you."

That was when, many miles ahead of him, Kyuubi's magnificent nine tails shot out of the ground, swaying hypnotically with the gentle wind flowing through the dreamscape, before the tailed beasts terror inspiring head erupted out of the ground, destroying the earth and raining clumps of soil from the sky.

Kurama levelled his eyes with Naruto and grinned.

 **OOOOOOOOOOOOO**

 **Wave country**

They needed to make sure that no one found out about what happened to Naruto, and now apparently Daku. The citizens of Wave country were aware that their leader had returned, and a few were itching to see him because they had various appointments with him, but were being barred from the Leaders Tower, strangely enough.

A temporary leader needed to be decided quickly, to take up the mantle of Wave leader and keep up appearances until Naruto took back his title. Since Daku was MIA, clearly seeing as he had Naruto's chakra both he and his master were going to be affected by the genjutsu, the person next in line was to be selected as interim leader.

That person was either Mole or Frog

Frog since he was the closest to the office of the Wave leader, a well-known confidante of the blonde seal master and a capable ninja in his own right.

Mole because she was the deputy DARK commander, directly under Daku, as well as the captain of Naruto's personal guards.

Understandably it was Mole that took the esteemed mantle instead of Frog; she was the strongest in the country at the time being and she commanded a lot of respect among the populace, whether Hoshi or Wave.

The mousy brown haired woman sat down on Naruto's seat, her expression straight and not betraying the bundle of nerves rolling in her. She set her hands on his desk and laced them together, placing them under her chin as she looked at the occupants of the room; Frog, Zabuza, Haku, the Demon Brothers, Temari, Naruto's personal guards and the Hoshi clan head, Hoshi Kyra Pinzetsu. The Suna Kunoichi had rushed back to Wave to investigate on why Itachi had been called back while the clan head had been summoned because he was to be included in deliberations concerning their leader.

"Our priority in this situation, just like in any similar situation in the past, is that the people should not find out about Lord Naruto's condition." She said and her words reverberated through the deathly silent room. The standing occupants nodded curtly, even Zabuza, who had his massive cleaver sheathed on his back. The new leader continued. "His hospital room is to be guarded twenty four seven. Raven you're in charge of the team now, go." The guards saluted and marched out of the room. "Haku, I want you to call back all of the hunter ninjas outside of the island and distribute them to the guard towers. Zabuza, I want you to assist him and make sure that the security seals on each jinchuriki allied to the Wave is still secure, as a side mission I want you to make sure that each barrier seal on each alliance village is intact, starting here." Zabuza was not the best with seals, he left that for Naruto and Haku, but he was a whiz at memorizing (cramming). He had been made to memorize the proper stack of seals to make up a barrier seal and the security seal. Both seals were level nine and complex enough to set a normal man's head on fire from simply trying to understand it but Zabuza wasn't trying to understand them, he was to just memorize them. The barrier seal had been explained on many occasions; an all elemental defence and detection seal that can repel and contain any attack known to man, including nature chakra attacks, as long as the chakra battery, supplied straight from a room under the leader's tower, was fully operational. The security seal was a failsafe seal Naruto placed on the allied tailed beast holders, that is the one, six, seven and lastly nine, the three tails hadn't yet reformed. The seal was made up of a chakra control destruction seal, a sharingan destruction seal (reverse sharingan seal), an alarm seal, a reverse summoning seal that would bring the jinchuriki to a seal reinforced room in their respective villages and lastly a watered down version of the chakra high that would activate if the Jinchuriki's chakra was drained.

Naruto was nothing if not extra careful.

It wasn't too late for Zabuza to learn fuinjutsu, all it took was taking the teaching class and in a few years of frequent study he would be a level three, but the man was not that patient. He abided to commands from his superior, Naruto, and thankfully the boy hadn't forced him to learn seals.

Zabuza sighed at all the missions he had been placed on but still saluted, albeit grudgingly, and left with Haku.

"Frog, you are now commander of DARK for now, but you are still to work with me in this office. Alongside both of those functions the four major construction jobs are too be supervised by you, like you have been doing before." Frog nodded and accepted the armband of DARK commander from Mole, who exchanged grim nods with him, and he saluted crisply and trooped out. The four major construction jobs Mole had mentioned were buildings that were still on-going; the first was the Wave country Chunin Exams Stadium, a massive structure made from solid stone and iron, each block supported by seals. It was being built in Outer Wave, on a plane of free land a little bit far away from the walls of Wave Central. Frog predicted that work there would be finished up in another month if they moved at their current pace.

The second building was in fact thirteen smaller buildings, guard posts, being constructed off the island on the semi-circle of land that used to be Fire country but had been bought by Naruto's parents, and so they were his land now. The rest of the land that was too far from Wave were sold back to the daimyo and the money was circled back into Wave's growing treasury The land stretched on for about ten miles until the trees got denser and the bushes got thicker, a clear sign that they were now in Fire country (not Konoha, yet). The guard posts were pretty much finished being constructed but they still needed to be painted and shrouded in a Fuin-genjutsu, as per Naruto's order. These buildings were where the hunter ninjas reported to when they were in too much of a rush to enter Wave; it was also where the guard ninjas and guard rotation were stationed, just within the detection barrier of Wave. There were thirteen buildings because of the sheer size of the land outside of the island country, there was at least three miles of space between each guard post.

The third building being done was in fact an upgrade for the DARK operatives' headquarters. Sleeping quarters were being built in the building and the mess hall was being expanded, with the recent increase in operatives that month. There were serious renovations being done to fully accommodate each ninja and various rooms stretched underground to train the operatives, or develop them, in non-physical aspects of being a shinobi. Thankfully the builders that began the initial construction of the HQ were smart enough to keep space for expansion both above and underground.

The last major construction job, seeing as there were other jobs being done but those were mostly by the citizens and towards their farms and businesses, was again merely a chain of buildings being built outside of Wave Central, since there was an overabundance of free land outside of the massive inner walls of the country. Not to say that there wasn't an abundance of free space inside the walls but rather the young leader had decided, for the sake of order and organisation in his country, that buildings within the walls should be for businesses, schools and organisations closely linked with his office that could only be maintained from a reachable distance, more because of convenience like schools and DARK HQ, while Outer Wave was for farm lands, fish markets, training grounds, clan compounds, housing units for those that prefer living close to the sea, farmers market, for those that can't transport their wares into Wave Central, and units for social gathering. The building Naruto was constructing was among the last classification. It was a building a recreational facility for children, teenagers and the elderly. There were already buildings for those inside the inner walls but a few parents had petitioned for the buildings because of their affinity for living near water. They still had to go to school in inner Wave, which was becoming more and more like a city, but the blonde leader had conceded to their pleading.

Mole looked at the last person in the room, a tall man with shoulder length white hair tied into a pony tail. He was in a royal purple cloak with a slit down the sides to show that he was in black ninja pants and black sandals; this was probably his combat uniform. He stood at attention with his hands behind his back and his chin up proudly, and waited for the leader to assign him his role.

"Kyra Pinzetsu, I do not want your clan mates to discover about Lord Naruto's situation, I'm sure you know why."

The man silently grit his teeth but nodded. "Understood."

"And," she continued, raising a finger for his attention as he prepared to leave the room. "As the Chief of Police I want police patrols to increase around the island, Inner and Outer Wave. I have a feeling that whatever took out our lord will soon attack and I want this country to be completely protected, barrier seal or not." He nodded and waited for anymore commands. "I will leave the details to you."

"I will do all in my power to keep Wave safe, Lady Em."

"I trust you to." She motioned for him to leave and raised an eyebrow when he stayed in place. "Is there something wrong?"

"I wish to know when the new equipment Lord Naruto commissioned to be created will arrive so I can begin instructing my men on how they are to be used."

Mole shifted a few documents around her desk until she found what she was looking for. "Lord Chensumoka (Smoke leader) has said that they will come tomorrow, first thing in the morning." She hummed and flipped to the next page, where a diagram of what Naruto had ordered for from the mechanic and engineer blessed allied village; a baton. This one was similar to the one Daku used to fight with only a small difference; this one was made from a light metal. Seal augmentation was becoming a norm for the members of the allied village so unpredictably the baton was speckled with seals. The functions were listed out on another letter but overall what it could do was fully incapacitate a person with a single tap, with only a few conditions, again listed somewhere else. The weapons were to be distributed among the police force of the other villages, and _**not**_ the shinobi force. She handed the picture to the man while saying. "They will arrive on the train at the crack of dawn tomorrow."

"Thank you, Lady Em." He said humbly and bowed deeply.

She nodded and he left the room. The woman rolled her neck and prepared herself for the next part of what she was to do. Naruto had detailed the protocol of what was to happen if he was out of action, the first being that knowledge of his inaction was to be hidden, so panic wouldn't take over Wave, the next was to call back about half of the ninjas back to the village. This was because the current situation with many people being after his head and willing to go through people just to fish him out; as soon as everything was resolved then he would reduce the urgency and only call back much less than half of his forces. The leader pressed the intercom buzzer on her desk and immediately the civilian secretary popped her head in, she tossed the scroll to her and after reading through it she silently nodded and went to perform what had been written. Next she was to make sure that things went on as normal, which could be checked off her list for now.

She heard a low, polite cough and the pale former ROOT operative blushed lightly when she remembered that Temari was still in the office. "I'm sorry Lady Temari; I just have a lot on my mind."

The blonde Suna Kunoichi waved flippantly. "What do you want me to do?"

Mole drummed her fingers on her desk and said. "Can you please take over training Lord Naruto's genin team?" She tapped her fingers on the table and her body erupted into chakra smoke, when it cleared it revealed a detailed Henge of Naruto in fine quality. "Can you…also judge my Henge as my lord Naruto?"

 **Authors note**

 **That's it guys! What do you think? I really want to know; thoughts, criticisms, advice, I'm open.**

 **What do you think of Naruto being put to sleep? Or Mole being the interim Wave leader?**

 **What do you think of the story so far?**

 **As a side note,** _ **MY BIRTHDAY**_ **was yesterday (whoop whoop!) and…it was also my last day of exams for the semester (I know right? I wrote an exam on my birthday, I do that every year since I started schooling, heck I wouldn't have even remembered about it unless my fam called to wish me a happy birthday :) ). That means regular updates are going to resume AND, since I'll be on a holiday, I will add Wednesday as an update day. That makes Friday, Sunday and Wednesday. Ain't that fantastic? Maybe I'll update or maybe I'll post a new story, be prepared!**

 **Also, if you want to see a peek into the next chapter (a whole excerpt) then tell me in a review, send me a PM or hit me up on Tumblr** _ **ghost – of – foy**_ **. Or do all three! Don't be shy. When I get it then I'll post it on my Tumblr in a moment, for those interested that is… ;)**

 **Unless no one's interested. Then I'll have to post it whenever I cycle through my other updates… (It might take a week y'know…*discreetly looks away and whistles*). For those that have noticed, yes I am shamelessly advertising myself :D check my other stories out AND check out my Tumblr, you won't be disappointed.**

 **Please drop a review, would you so kindly, stay safe wherever you are in the world and I will see you on the flip side.**

 **Foy.**


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